Jeff Fellows writes for The Messenger in the Diocese of Central New York:
For many years Trinity Memorial Church, Binghamton, thought that one of their stained-glass windows, like many of the others, was made by Wippell/Mowbray, in Exeter, England. In April, we had Chapman Studios from Albany, NY, evaluate the condition of our windows and they found a little white monk in the bottom corner of a particular window. We thought how cute that the artist incorporated this little monk in the window. In May, we had a gentleman, Robert Fertitta, a wonderful photograph/organist, from Woodbury, CT, ask to photograph all of Trinity’s windows. He has taken photos of windows from hundreds of Episcopal churches in the northeast. As we pointed out the cute little white monk to him, he told us that this was a signature of the Whitefriar Glass Studios, London, England. After looking this up on the internet, we realized that the history of this one window took a huge turn.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
