Cambridgeshire church stained glass depicts Covid-19 scenes

A religion is thought to beryllium the archetypal successful the UK to person a stained solid model depicting scenes from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whittlesford parish church, successful Cambridgeshire, commissioned the £20,000 artwork to people 1,000 years since the religion was archetypal built.

Scenes wrong the stained solid see doctors moving successful PPE and a pistillate delivering buying to an aged man.

The window's task squad said they wanted it to beryllium a beacon of hope.

The installation astatine St Mary and St Andrew's Church was completed successful July.

Alasdair Coles, 56, said they came up with the thought of a stained solid model successful the autumn of 2020, astatine the tallness of the pandemic.

"We decided precise rapidly to marque the taxable of it astir caring, to honour the caring radical that we'd seen during the pandemic, some professionally, but besides by radical successful the colony who were looking aft 1 another," helium said.

Mr Coles, who is joined to the church's vicar, set-up a colony committee to enactment the task and interrogation imaginable artists.

Children from adjacent William Westley Church of England Primary School were besides drafted-in to assistance with the window's design.

Artist Benjamin Finn, who's been moving with stained solid for much than 30 years, said the committee progressive an "enormous" magnitude of work.

"It was 1 of the champion things I've done," helium said. "It was 1 of the hardest too.

"A batch of the imagery that I've utilized [in the past] has been much explicitly religious. But successful a way, this was somewhat much secular... but it inactive has meaning successful a Christian context."

Mr Finn, who is 59 and from Essex, designed, manufactured and installed the window.

It features solid from 5 countries astir the satellite including Italy and Germany.

Mr Coles said the wealth raised to money the task came from a ample donor successful the US, who had links to the church, and the radical of Whittlesford village.

He added: "We privation radical to beryllium encouraged by the examples of caring that they spot successful the window.

"But besides beryllium encouraged much profoundly by the thought that immoderate you're going done personally, oregon what we're going done arsenic a village, state oregon satellite - determination is hope."