This window was commissioned in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. It features the Lion and the Unicorn from the Royal Coat of Arms carrying pennants showing cyphers of Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh. They stand in a field of poppies, the county flower of Norfolk.
Initial inspiration came from the hymn VENI, CREATOR SPIRITUS sung at the coronation;
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire.
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost thy seven-fold gifts impart……….
The Anointing, arguably the most solemn part of the Coronation Service forms the central theme of the design. The words of the hymn, sung as the Queen prepares for her anointing, distil the centrality of the Christian faith to the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The importance of the Anointing to the Queen herself was surely indicated by her refusal to allow it to be televised, the single part of the service so excluded. Always conducted with privacy beneath a canopy, this is the point at which the monarch makes a solemn and binding promise to God and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit to bless their reign.
There are several symbols used to represent the Holy Spirit but as in the words of the hymn, the central focus of this window shows it as ‘celestial fire’, a corona sending beams of light out into the world. On either side are canopies based on the gothic detail of Westminster Abbey, ‘canopies’ sheltering the sacred moment of the Anointing. The radiating shafts of light are made from deeply facetted clear glass, the ‘fire of diamond’ perhaps, further representing the Diamond Jubilee.
Above in the traceries are the four national flowers representing England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
