Colonial Church Chronicles: Missionary Themes in Stained Glass, Home and Abroad

This paper will consider the various ways in which British colonial church and missionary activity was both promoted and commemorated through the medium of stained glass during the nineteenth century. It will consider the range of people and activities represented and why, and ask in what particular ways stained glass in this context was used and understood as a medium of communication. It will cover the memorialisation of key missionary figures (‘martyrs’, bishops etc.) as well as the use of stained glass in the representation of key rites of passage (such as baptism) in missionary environments. The paper will also consider the processes behind procurement and transportation of such materials across the world, and ask which artists and manufacturers were involved and in what capacity. In all, it will situate the use and meaning of stained glass within the broader ecclesiological movement vis-à-vis empire, missionary obligation, and broader ideas concerning the ‘colonial church’.