Religious Freedom In Maryland

1972 – Washington National Cathedral – South Outer Aisle

There is a playful harmony of color in this window’s to side lancets. On the left, the greens and blues dominate the foreground figure with the reds and purples in the background and on the right it is just the opposite. In all three lancets there is also a balance of similar size figures and similar amounts of story telling. Rowan’s second wife Peggy says he was working on this window when they first met and next he went on to the West Rose and the clerestory windows.

Iconography

The top of the center lancet reveals the theme of this window with two people holding a marker commemorating the Act of Religious Toleration of 1649 by the Maryland General Assembly. Below this in the center lancet is Thomas John Claggett, the first Bishop consecrated by the Episcopal Church in America. Below Bishop Claggett is Captain John Smith exploring the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland’s most important waterway. In fact Rowan includes fish and crab from the bay at the bottom of the window.

In the left Lancet Bishop Francis Asbury is at the top. He was the first Methodist bishop consecrated in America and below him is the founder of the Society of Friends, George Fox. On the right lancet the first Roman Catholic Bishop in America, John Carroll completes the trio of bishops. He is standing near Georgetown University, which he founded and below him Father Andrew White is celebrating the first Roman Catholic mass in America.