For the main chapel of the Edwin Cardinal O’Brien Pastoral Center, headquarters of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, Washington Art Glass Studio helped create a collection of thirty original stained glass windows celebrating the intersection of Catholic faith and military service.
Developed over a three-year period, the window program was designed specifically for the chapel. Its imagery incorporates saints associated with military service, Saints Peter and Paul, the four Evangelists, symbols of the seven sacraments and priestly preaching, emblems representing the United States Armed Forces and Department of Veterans Affairs, and the coats of arms of the Archdiocese’s first archbishop and Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio.
The windows were fabricated using glass imported from Germany and feature extensive hand-painted work completed by Jed and Jacob Boertlein of Washington Art Glass Studio in collaboration with longtime stained-glass artists Barbara and Karen Lynch. The project would become the final collaboration between the mother-and-daughter artists following Barbara Lynch’s death shortly after her work on the windows was completed.
Washington Art Glass completed installation of the thirty windows in July 2019. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio formally blessed the new stained glass on September 6, 2019, completing the final major phase of a years-long renovation of the pastoral center’s chapel.
