Second window group on the west wall.
Previous Next
From left to right:
1. Christian at the wicket gate. (Pilgrim's Progress series)
2. The Good Shepherd.
3. Help lifts Christian. (Pilgrim's Progress series)
The two outer windows are the last in the Pilgrim's Progress series. John Bunyan, the author, was a dissenter or nonconformist as were the Congregationalist founding members of this church. He wrote Pilgrim's Progress while in prison. As a dissenter who was not ordained in the Church of England he was unlicensed to preach. He was gaoled many times, eventually being released through the intervention of Quakers with the King, James II. The King offered John an influential post but it was declined because James would not rescind the laws which persecuted nonconformists.
John Bunyan was responsible for starting many village chapels and in 1688 served as chaplain to the Lord Mayor of London. His book Pilgrim's Progress was the best known of his many books and tracts and became for a time one of the most translated and read books in the English language. The images Bunyan uses in Pilgrim's Progress are reflections of images from his own life and invoke the reality of life experiences in his readers.
The centre window of this group depicts Jesus as the Good Shepherd. It recalls the Parable of the Lost Sheep told by Jesus and in particular the words, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."