Beautifying and enhancing places of worship has long been a priority, even a necessity, for people seeking a closeness with God as they come together to praise and to give thanks. We have traditionally used all of the fine arts—music, painting, sculpture, dance, writing, and architecture to enrich our worship experience. Christians, believing that we are made in the image of God, declare that God has given mankind a soul capable of inspiring the human mind to its noblest achievement, the quest after God.

To express our inexpressible experiences, we have developed a beauti- ful language. It is the language of sign and symbol that moves and inspires the soul of mankind. This is the outward and visible form through which the inward and spiritual reality is revealed.

Jesus used symbols in his teaching and many examples are found in the miracles and parables. He referred to himself as the Good Shepherd, the Light of the World, the True Vine. And how can we not remember the night when he instituted the Sacrament, how he said, when he had taken bread and given thanks, “Take, eat, this is my body.” Matthew 26:26 (NRSV)

There are two great values in symbols: devotional and educational. Symbols remind us of the Christian faith and provide an atmosphere for worship even before a worship service begins. This speaks to the devotion- al value of symbols as hearts and minds seek God.

The educational value of symbols is self-evident, for they are thought- provoking object lessons which introduce the great themes of our religion. It is both refreshing and instructive for adults as well as children to approach the cardinal ideas of Christianity through church symbols. To cite one example, the concept of the Holy Trinity is made much more under- standable and more interesting by referring to symbols such as the triangle, which is made of three parts but is not a triangle if any one of the parts is missing.

Because the experiences of the soul with life’s deepest realities are understood through symbols, they truly are a universal language. Those symbols found in the stained glass windows and needlepoint kneelers in the sanctuary of Hayes Barton United Methodist Church are described within these pages. Perhaps the viewer may receive a better understanding of these works of art through this photographic essay.