Divine Light – the Stained Glass of England’s Cathedrals
19th November 2025
This winter we bring you Divine Light: the remarkable stained glass of England’s cathedrals.
Divine Light – a winter campaign by the Association of English Cathedrals in collaboration with author, Janet Gough OBE.
From one of the earliest stained glass schemes in Canterbury to mark the murder of Thomas Becket and Portsmouth’s Dunkirk and D-Day windows commemorating a crucial wartime rescue (below), to Liverpool’s Great West Window featuring its Liver Building and the Mersey Ferry and Coventry’s Baptistery Window with its 198 individual coloured light bursts, the stained glass of England’s cathedrals represents a significant national art collection and spans 900 years.
Our winter campaign 2025 is Divine Light – based on the latest volume of the same name by Janet Gough OBE.
Divine Light is in three parts with a preface:
- Preface – Divine Light. The Stained Glass of England’s Cathedrals
- Part 1 – The Middle Ages and the Reformation, 1130 to 1800
- Part 2 – The Long Nineteenth Century, 1800 to 1920
- Part 3 – The Modern Age, 1920 to the present
Every day through Advent and Christmas we will share the extraordinary stained glass of each of the cathedrals of the Church of England including the two Royal Peculiars, Westminster Abbey and St George’s Chapel at Windsor, and St German’s Cathedral, Isle of Man.
We will showcase remarkable craftsmanship and share stories to show the depth and range of stained-glass artistry in our cathedrals from the 12th century to modern times.
From new glass commissioned as a lasting memorial in Durham Cathedral by the parents of Sara Pilkington, to be ‘beautiful, meaningful, uplifting, spiritual and celebratory’ , to the 18,000 pieces of hand blown glass in the Rose Window that greets visitors to St Albans, or Thomas Denny’s creations that reveal the story of Richard III at Leicester Cathedral, or Chichester’s Chagall Window (below) commissioned by the Dean who believed that artists brought a dignity and force to their art that could help the Church communicate its message.
This winter we invite you to explore the stained-glass legacy of England’s cathedrals and find your own message and meaning in their colours and shapes. England’s remarkable cathedral glass collection is accessible nationwide and open year-round.
We hope this campaign, like the book that inspired it, will encourage people to go and seek out our cathedral glass for themselves and discover a little bit of the story and the artistry behind it.
Find out more …