Chapel Unveils New Stained Glass Window Given by Former President Joanne Berger-Sweeney

Maya Sasaki-George ’28

Arts & Entertainment Editor

On Nov. 2, 2025, the Trinity College Chapel debuted a new stained glass window in honor of Bishop Barbara Clementine Harris H’90, honorary alumna of Trinity College and the first woman to become a consecrated bishop in the Anglican Communion. This is the first major stained glass window to be added to the Chapel since the 1940s, when financial difficulties prevented the original window plans from being fully carried out. This window, depicting the theme of “The Holy Church Throughout All The World,” was rendered by Greg Gorman and styled after late 14th and early 15th century stained glass designs. It was donated by former college president Joanne Berger-Sweeney and thus bears her name, dedicated in honor of her family. 

The architect of the chapel, Philip Hubert Frohman, designed the building to represent different periods of Gothic architecture in each of its sections. The Rose Window, the circular stained glass window above the Nave, is designed in the 13th-century style, utilizing dark, rich colors which are on the more opaque side. In contrast, the Berger-Sweeney window evokes 14th and 15th century styles of glass, which were far more luminous. As described by Chapel Curator Christopher Row ’91, “[The] silvery glass allows quite a bit of soft, filtered, natural light to enter the space — so you achieve beautiful color and pattern, without turning the most ‘functional’ space of the Chapel into a dark and dreary tomb.” Row asserts that this design element causes the viewer’s eyes to be drawn to the High Altar at the far wall of the chapel, one of the most religiously significant sections of the building. According to Row, the location and style of the new window employs “a subtle use of light and space…to emphasize a deep and profound underlying theology.”The window itself depicts Bishop Harris clothed in her full traditional regalia, holding a crozier in one hand and a book displaying the words “I WILL SING TO MY GOD A NEW SONG” in the other. As outlined in the program for the window unveiling, Bishop Harris was a passionate advocate for civil rights, working to combat issues of racism, sexism and homophobia through her ministry. She was ordained as a priest in 1980 and elected bishop suffragan in 1988, now joined by more than fifty women in the episcopate. The Bishop’s window reportedly took almost two years to create, undergoing a process of watercolor and charcoal renderings on its journey to the finished design. Row and Gorman worked closely together throughout this process, taking care to maintain historical accuracy and integrate the window with the rest of the chapel design. “During this whole time of design and fabrication, my appreciation…of the life and works of Bishop Harris increased to a very deeply felt sense of honor and [privilege] to have contributed to this memorial in her honor,” said Gorman. This new window represents a powerful and significant chapter of the Episcopal Church’s history, now intertwined with the fabric of the Trinity College Chapel. For more information on the window’s fabrication process, visit @greg_gorman_studio on Instagram.