This window is above the Thorns to Angel Wings sculpture and the St. John’s altar. It is rich in artistry, symbolism and details. It is one of the clerestory windows approved by the vestry in 1911 and made in London by Heaton, Butler & Bayne and given in memory of Thomas Gordon Hunt who died in his early fifties. He lived from 1838 to 1891 and this window was installed in the new 1910 church shortly after it was completed. 

Music and dance as well as the Old and New Testaments are celebrated in this exquisite window. Miriam, the Jewish prophetess, poet, and sister of Moses and Aaron, is playing a timbrel. This flat drum with loose metallic discs is now known as a tambourine. Cecilia, a devout Christian woman and venerated Roman martyr whose saint’s day is November 22nd, plays an organ, which is strapped around her shoulders so both hands are free to play the keyboard. The pipes are played by mouth. 

Miriam’s robe is a beautiful combination of blues, also seen in the sky above Cecilia whose outer robe is a brilliant emerald green. Purple  glass is seen in each lancet and both women are framed by elegant fringed, white and gold cloth background. Behind Miriam flows the Red Sea, banked by sand hills, reminding us of her poetry, recorded in Exodus, celebrating the safe crossing of the children of Israel when “Miriam took a timbrel in her hand. And the women went out after her with timbrels and dances.” This hymn of praise forms the basis of the Song of Moses found in the Book of Common Prayer. Cecilia stands in front of the dome and tower of a basilica, perhaps one in Rome where her relics are in repose. Cecilia was so renowned that she is celebrated in literature including Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The St. Cecilia Girl Choir of Girls at Christ Church is one of many bearing her name.

Karen Royce