The Memorial Window is located in the northern transept of St Peter's Eastern Hill, above the Lady Chapel. Archbishop Strong was in no doubt that the inspiration for this window came from Father Maynard who, as one of Bishop Strong's Commissaries, had represented St Peter's Church and the Church in Australia at the consecration of the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul in Dogura in October 1939. Maynard found an able collaborator for this work in the local artist, Napier Waller. Waller had specialized in work in stained glass and mosaics since the 1930s, and had already completed several major works before the commission for this window in 1945. (Short biographical details about Canon Maynard and Napier Waller can be found at the Australian Dictionary of Biography Online.)

There was a proud tradition of support for the New Guinea Mission at St Peter's — over the years a number of parishioners had served in New Guinea, and Father Maynard was closely involved with this work, corresponding frequently with the missionaries in New Guinea. The first news of deaths of missionaries consequent on the Japanese invasion at Buna Beach arrived at St Peter's by October, 1942, and Maynard preached a significant sermon about these events at Evensong on October 11. This sermon, entitled 'The New Guinea Martyrs', can be downloaded from this website.

The more specific story of the window is told by Father Maynard in a series of items in his "Vicar's Letter" section of the Parish Paper, issues between December 1945 and December 1946, published by St Peter's. (A transcript of the relevant passages is available here.) In addition, pictures of the window, together with a commentary, were published in the editorial section of The Australian Church Quarterly in 1946 and 1949. These comments have also been transcribed, and are available here. Finally, Maynard preached a number of sermons on the window in the weeks before it was dedicated. Unfortunately, these sermons exist only in note form in the Parish archives, but these notes do reveal additional dimensions to Maynard's thinking about the window, so transcripts have been prepared.

The text Maynard chose for his sermons on the window was "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." (I John, 5:4). In the Parish Paper of October 1946, Maynard goes on:–

This sums up the message of the window. I suggested that the window might be read both vertically and horizontally. The vertical message is clear. It begins at the left-hand top corner, where attention is called to the beauty of nature, which rightly understood tells of God. The story then passes on through school and hospital, through building and pastoral care, through tragedy and martyrdom, through desolation and restoration, up to the right-hand corner, where the priest is seen offering the Sacrifice of Praise as he gazes beyond the earthly Altar to the glory of the eternal City of God. Earth is redeemed and sin overcome by the faith which lays hold of the beauty, the truth and the goodness of God.

The horizontal message, it seems to me, to speak rather differently of the revelation of these same great Values perceived by faith—beauty, truth and goodness. Reading across, the top panels tell of natural beauty, ecclesiastical beauty and supernatural beauty. A little lower, reading horizontally, we are introduced into spheres of work, schools, hospitals, cathedral-building, and reconstruction. But work must be based upon truth, or it will not stand. The teacher must know the truth, so must the doctor, the priest, and the architect, each in their own department of knowledge. He who said: "I am the Truth," said also, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." Then, on the lowest level, the three panels speak of Goodness. In no way can goodness be so arrestingly shown as in sacrifice. What more need be said? "The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." And, "They, knowing full well the risk, elected to stay with their flock."

In his sermons, Maynard expands this message in a number of different ways. He speaks of the transforming power of faith—it catches up the natural and raises it to the supernatural: It meets the evil and overcomes it by the technique of the cross. The themes of 'Suffering' and 'Sacrifice' are also drawn into the depiction of 'Goodness' as above. Or the window can be read as "beginning with nature, passing through redemption ... to glory."

Archbishop Strong had obviously discussed the interpretation of the window in depth with Maynard, even if he had had no part in its design. In his Martyrs' Day sermon he reads the themes of Beauty, Truth and Goodness in the window somewhat differently. The different readings of the window can all be seen as valid interpretations of the basic sermon; some possibilities will be discussed in the commentaries on the individual panels of the window, which follow.

The conception and execution of this Centenary Memorial Window would seem to have been well-received within the parish as a whole. The time from the initial Vestry approval for the project to the dedication of the completed window in October 1946 was only about one year. A sum of approximately £1,000 was raised, £700 of which went towards the cost of the window itself; the remainder was presented to Bishop Strong, during the week of celebration of St Peter's Centenary, as a cheque for £300 towards the costs of reconstruction work in the war-devastated areas of his diocese.

In summarizing his feelings about the window and its dedication at High Mass on October 27, 1946, Father Maynard writes the following in the Parish Paper for Christmas, 1946:–

It seemed at least to the writer of this letter that here we had for once everything in its right place. The emphasis right, upon the forward essential spiritual work of the Church, which includes social and personal redemption. This was proclaimed in a setting of worship from which nothing was wanting through ignorance or prejudice. All was there of beauty and art which we knew how to offer. All was in place, great music, under the hand of a master musician,—God bless him; a glorious window, just dedicated, created by a great artist in glass; incense and holy water, vestments and lights, colours and concerted movement, all expressive, however imperfectly, of the unimaginable beauty of the courts of the All Holy One. And all this was in balance and proportion, was unobtrusive, as the best art is, seemingly inevitable.

Notes:

The following is a list of the source documents used in compiling the text for this presentation of the New Guinea Memorial Window. These documents have been transcribed and are available from this website.

Canon Maynard's sermon, 'The New Guinea Martyrs', from October 11, 1942

Canon Maynard writing in the St Peter's Parish Paper, 1945 and 1946.

Canon Maynard writing in the Australian Church Quarterly, 1946 and 1949.

Canon Maynard's sermon notes from October, 1946.

Archbishop Strong's Martyr's Day sermon, 1981.

Archbishop Booth's sermon, "Redeeming the Time", preached during the High Mass on October 27, 1946, at which he dedicated the window is also available. This sermon was of more relevance to the centenary of St Peter's Eastern Hill than to the window, but it is included here because of its intrinsic historical interest.