Stained Glass

Church Architecture

Many churches include windows depicting biblical scenes, saints, or Christian symbols. Their subjects and styles are local artistic choices.

Key points

Sacred images invite attention to Christ and the life of faith.
Look for: Colored light and Christian imagery.
An illustrative Roman Catholic parish in the Latin rite, assembled for study rather than surveyed from a single building. Plans, devotional furnishings, music, and the locations of the font and tabernacle vary; Eastern Catholic churches have other traditions. Sizes, materials, and spacing are illustrative, and displayed vessels represent different moments of worship.
Images affirmed without prescribing the later icon screen (Historical connection): The council's decree affirms images of Christ, Mary, angels, and saints in churches and other settings. It distinguishes honorable reverence from the worship belonging to the divine nature. Orthodox and Catholic churches receive this council; Reformed teaching rejects the religious use of images, while other Protestant traditions differ.
The decree does not prescribe a modern full-height iconostasis or establish when every arrangement of icons developed. Its theological authority and its distinction between veneration and worship are accepted differently across Christian traditions.

John 1:14–18 — Images affirmed without prescribing the later icon screen: The council's decree affirms images of Christ, Mary, angels, and saints in churches and other settings. It distinguishes honorable reverence from the worship belonging to the divine nature. Orthodox and Catholic churches receive this council; Reformed teaching rejects the religious use of images, while other Protestant traditions differ.