Over the past two days I’ve been down in Oxfordshire, visiting the National Defence Academy. Why, you might ask, would a former regional organiser for CND want to visit such a place? The rather surprising response is that I have been invited to put forward a design to be considered for two stained glass windows in the site’s chapel. These are to be in the form of a war memorial, commissioned to mark the centenary of the outbreak of war in 1914. For several reaosns I find the project terrifying, but such an interesting opportunity that I don’t want to pass it up.
As you might guess, anything I put forward isn’t likely to glorify war, and given the fact of its intended location in a chapel any acceptable project is going to need to be theologically literate. On the way home I met with the glass technician, and had a very useful briefing from him. As yet, however, there is no finished design, although my head is buzzing with ideas.
If you are familiar with my work to date, then I imagine that the end product is likely to resemble in style the work I did for the Eliot project, or for Solitude and Sacredness. We shall see! All I can say at this point, however, is “Watch this space!”