The atmosphere Stained Glass created in the chapel of the Nagai Center, Suteindo Garasu: Stained Glass by Kenneth Fenter

      The reason I learned the art and craft of stained glass was what light passing through colored glass does to the atmosphere of a room. It was in a small chapel at Kispiox, British Colombia, that I first experiences this on a drizzly afternoon.

6' x 6' window designed by Barboa.
Stained glass by Ken Fenter

      The following excerpt from my non-fiction book Suteindo Garasu: Stained Glass is one of those moments after a grey, concrete walled room is turned into a warm tranquil space.    

      Aguilar’s prayers apparently carried some weight though, as finally about nine p.m. the last panel was in place and miraculously none of the panels or the people handling them had been dropped, broken or crippled. While the glassman applied the final putty on the lily window, the rest of us picked a pew and sat down to let the tension drain.
      Pancho turned off the lights and the windows glowed from the city lights outside. Aguilar turned and looked at the twelve Stations of the Cross that had been installed earlier. He crossed himself and silently prayed. Before the stained glass was installed the grey concrete walls and overhead florescent lights were harsh and cold. Now the large amount of opalescent glass caught the incidental light from the city and reflected amber light into the room, bathing it in a soft warm glow. No more would the chapel be grey and cold feeling. 

6' x 8' window designed by Barboa
Stained glass by Ken Fenter

      A solitary recessed spotlight shone on the crucifix and a replica of a fumie behind the altar. Relief sculpture on the concrete columns in the center of the chapel and along the walls showed clearly in the dim amber light. No one spoke. We sat, each with our own thoughts.
      After a while, we filed silently down the stairs to the kitchen off the sitting room. Pancho fixed real perked coffee in an old automatic coffeemaker someone had donated to the Center. The garasu ya san, who spoke no English, excused himself and returned to his home. We pulled chairs around the kitchen table, and the four women, Aguilar, Pancho and I relaxed. The windows were in place and in time for Easter and the rash of spring weddings that were scheduled. A gust of wind rattled the kitchen windows and it began to rain as the storm front hit.

5' x 10 window designed by Barboa
Stained glass by Ken Fenter

      “I have waited for this moment for many years,” Aguilar said happily as we sipped our coffee. “I think this calls for a toast. And, by happy coincidence I have here some fine wine presented to the Center by one of our visitors this past month. Unfortunately I cannot join you as this is still, my period of abstinence, but I can join the rest of you in a toast. He went to one of his cabinets and took out two bottles of French wine. Pancho produced six glasses.
      We clicked our glasses together in “Kampai!” The four women were missionary teachers who were teaching at private schools in the Osaka and Kyoto area. As with most of the missionary teachers I’d met at the Center, they were pleasant, soft spoken, open, and sincere.

Suteindo Garasu: Stained Glass Second Edition

by Kenneth Fenter will be available soon with full color photos on Amazon.com

Available now: Gaijin! Gaijin! and MoIchido: Once More by Kenneth Fenter