Back Window - The Great West Window
Depicts:- The "Sermon On The Mount"
Designed And Installed By:- Philip Handel 1957
Erected In Memory Of:- Various late parishioners of the Cathedral
Gift Of, And Wording:- This window was offered to and approved by the Cathedral Chapter as recorded in a minute of the meeting 19 March 1957. It was the gift of the clergy and parishioners.
This was the first major contract of design and installation of a stained glass window entrusted to Philip Handel, aged 26 of Sydney. It is now one of thirteen such works in the Cathedral which have been completed by this artist. Of special note is the magnificent fine detailed art work and the gothic stone tracery
which supports the arches and glass.
Text And Religious Significance:- Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus went away into a mountain to pray and called his disciples to him. A great crowd also came to listen to
him, and he healed them their diseases. The whole crowd sought to touch Him because power went out from Him, and he healed them all.
The words which followed are the official teaching of Jesus, the opening of Jesus' mind to his disciples. That is, it is the summary of the teaching which Jesus gave to his disciples. These messages the disciples were then to take to other people.
The Sermon on the Mount contains The Beatitudes, the beautiful series of phrases beginning with, "Blessed
are the ...•..• " Matt. 5: 3-12.
"And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
