The church of St Mary, Stoke St Mary, - Millennium and Jubilee Windows

The new stained glass window in St. Mary's Church, is the means by which one Somerset village has chosen to mark the beginning of the third Millennium. It is a special gift from the present to the future, and continues a long tradition whereby the villages of Stoke, over more than 800 years, have sought to beautify and care for their parish church. The window depicts the story of St. Anne, with her husband St Joachim, teaching the Virgin Mary to read, and is the work of the renowned stained glass maker Patrick Reyntiens. It was commissioned on behalf of Stoke St Mary Church Committee and Stoke St Mary Millennium Committee and was dedicated on Sunday 10 September, 2000. The window was paid for through the generosity of many people, particularly those who supported the village's Millennium Weekend in June 2000.

Patrick Reyntiens Patrick Reyntiens OBE (b. 1925) is regarded as one of the finest European stained glass makers of the last 50 years, and his work with the artist John Piper has ensured his fame. Together, Reyntiens and Piper were responsible for the great baptistry window in the new Coventry Cathedral (once described as the greatest example of stained glass since the Middle Ages) as well as for the glass in Liverpool's Roman Catholic Cathedral. Patrick Reyntiens is a master of colour, a mastery displayed not least in Stoke St Mary's new window. Though he has lived in Somerset for many years, this is the first window he has commissioned to make for any Somerset church. Tom Mayberry 2000.

Photograph 14-Aug-2001 by Jenny, of Winterwell.

Photograph October 2001 by Jenny of Winterwell. Detail of St. Anne and St. Joachim.

JUBILEE WINDOWS PROJECT Fund-raising activities continue apace in 2002 for Patrick Reyntiens to make and install a further two windows in St Marys Church in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11