Bluff
Park Methodist’s
Very
Special Windows
Bluff Park Methodist’s very special windows complete a $4.9 million addition.
By Greg Garrision, News staff writer
If it sometimes seems the medieval art of stained-glass is making a comeback, Peter Rohlf likes to point out it never died and he hopes it never does.
Rohlf, president of Rohlf’s Stained and Leaded Glass Studios in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., attended the recent dedication of the new stained-glass windows which his company made and installed at Bluff Park United Methodist Church.
“They’re very special windows,” Rohlf said. “They let in a lot of light but there’s a lot of color. Most windows we design today we try to let in a lot of light.”
The windows that adorn the main walls of the sanctuary were the final work of famed stained-glass designer Frederick Cole, who was artist-in-residence at Canterbury Cathedral in England.
Cole, who oversaw the renovation of the windows in Canterbury Cathedral and designed stained-glass windows for thousands of churches worldwide, died in 1998 at age 90.
Before his death, Cole designed the 13 vertical windows for Bluff Park United Methodist.
A large rose windows above the altar had to be finished by his longtime assistant, Ron Page.
The rose window features Jesus wearing a flowing red robe with his arms extended over symbols of the messianic kingdom of peace, based on Isaiah 11:6-9. It symbolizes a messianic kingdom of peace and harmony, when the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard with the goat, the lions with calves, and babies can crawl safely through nests of poisonous snakes.
The windows were the crowning touch on a $4.9 million building addition at Bluff Park Methodist. “It took about a year and a half to get the windows made and installed,” said Pastor Reid Crotty.
Rohlf’s company, which specializes in traditional designs and abstracts, created seven windows depicting the arts at Independent Presbyterian Church.
The company also has done restoration work on the windows at Cathedral Church of the Advent.
The Bluff Park windows have lead to other jobs in progress for Rohlf’s, including a new Methodist church in Fort Payne and a large residence in Birmingham.