On Sunday [21 April, 2024], the artist who designed the St Thomas windows in 1983, Philip Trusttum, spoke to parishioners at morning tea, explaining that his own hands and fingers were his ‘models’ for his designs for the four windows. He was delighted that his windows have been preserved and have a new lease of life in our Fendall Hall!
St Thomas’s Church on Strowan Road was the daughter church of St Barnabas’. It started out in 1911 as the Wroxton Mission Room for an additional Sunday School, later a consecrated church, but was damaged in the 2011 earthquakes and subsequently demolished.
The two pairs of windows in St Thomas’s were designed by Philip Trusttum and executed by Ben Hanly, Suzanne Johnson and Philip Trusttum in 1983.
In September 1983, Dr Alex Baird, a long-time worshipper and warden at St Thomas’s, introduced the designs prepared by New Zealand artist Philip Trusttum for the new stained glass windows. The new windows from the Estate of Marion Jean and Mabel Sorenson were approved by the St Thomas’s Committee and, according to the Vestry minutes, the parish was enthusiastic about this development. The pair of windows in the Chancel had a special link with the story of St Thomas – hands that represent Christ and fingers associated with ‘Doubting’ Thomas, who would not believe until he had seen Christ’s wounds and placed his fingers in his side (John 20: 24 – 29).
The 1983 windows were carefully stored after the Quakes and subsequent demolition of St Thomas’s and have recently been re-installed in the Fendall Hall at St Barnabas’, which is used on Sundays for the contemporary Lifestreams service, and for many parish and other activities during the week.
By Frieda Looser
