On my Lake District adventure, I visited a small church that boasts a beautiful stained glass window designed by Edward Burne-Jones and executed by William Morris. I was so moved by the experience and so grateful to the parishioners that I wrote this poem and sent it to them. I got word this week that they published it in their parish newsletter for everyone to read, and that made me happy – because they deserve to feel proud of their hospitality!
St. James Church in Staveley
For Katherine Morris
I almost missed the Burne-Jones window –
couldn’t find it, time passing, time to go.
But something whispered try
and so I did and was glad
Greeted at the door as a friend,
Ushered to the altar-space and proudly
Shown the famous colored glass –
all angels and harps and a shower of stars.
In the morning sun it gleamed in the
wooden weft-work of the church’s frame.
Katherine stood with me for company
beside its upward-arrowed trinity.
“Angels are musicians, it seems,” I said
and Katherine laughed, herself a-glow
with kindness. I realized then:
angels are beautiful because they make music.
A church is beautiful when it opens its arms.
Kate Chadbourne
