You can read more about the rood screen and pulpit in this article by Randal Loy.
The year 2009 marks the one hundredth anniversary of the dedication of both the rood screen and the pulpit.
A rood screen is an ornamental partition that separates the Nave from the
Chancel, and its use dates to the Middle Ages. Rood was the Anglo-Saxon
word meaning cross. It is symbolic of the veil in the Temple of Jerusalem,
which was rent in two from top to bottom at the moment of Christs death on
the cross. The rood screen was actually designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany
(1848-1933), rather than having been designed by one of his employees and
then credited to him. It came from New York City three months before it was
dedicated in a special service on Friday, January 1, 1909. The dedication
was also a social event, and engraved invitations were sent to everyone in
Kansas City society. The rood screen is a memorial to August Robert Meyer
who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1851. The cross in the center of the
Rood screen represents atonement, and the large opening in the middle,
coupled with the slender, almost invisible support columns, presents an
unhindered approach to the Divine Presence.
It is made of wrought iron and
bronze, with liberal gilding and painting. Sections of the screen are
painted midnight blue to mimic unpainted cast iron. The rood screen is 30
feet wide by 45 feet tall and is six inches thick. When it was installed, it
was said to be the finest piece of ecclesiastical artwork west of the
Mississippi River. If you look closely at the rood screen (photo to the
right), you will see that
it is not actually tall enough for the arch in which it stands at the top of
the chancel steps. Tiffany and his workmen compensated for that by adding
another cross at the peak of the rood screen, and they used that to anchor
the screen at the top.
The pulpit is a memorial to William Bingham Clarke, who was a member of
the Parish for many years before his death in 1905. He was born in Ohio in
1848, and was educated as an attorney. After the death of Clarke, his wife
and two sons made a trip to New York City. There, in the new showrooms of
the Gorham Company, they purchased this magnificent pulpit for Grace Church.
The pulpit is an adaptation of the Canterbury Ambo in the Washington
National Cathedral. While that pulpit is stone, and is covered with
beautiful carvings depicting seven men who were instrumental in the
translation of the Bible into vernacular English, this pulpit from the
Gorham Foundry is more simple. Its bronze statues depict the four Gospel
writers. The pulpit was dedicated on Sunday, April 4, 1909. This elegant
product of the Gorham Foundry has served as the pulpit for countless sermons
since that first Sunday morning in April 1909, a century of sermons!
Article by Randal Loy
Photos by Chris Morrison
