Juliet Hemingray: Font Canopy
Title: Font Canopy
Artist: Juliet Hemingray
Location: St Thomas, South Wigston (C of E)
Date: 1987
Nominated by Christopher Johnson: ‘Dedicated at Pentecost 1987, the font canopy in St Thomas South Wigston concluded the work of refurbishment and redecoration of the baptistry following a fire in 1981. Initially, the deep blue carpet was introduced to represent the waters of baptism and the pure white walls the Holy Spirit. In a somewhat austere late-Victorian building, more was needed to lift that area in the church visually and a font canopy, drawing on the inspiration of the Middle Ages, was conceived. Juliet Hemingray was commissioned to work on the textiles, with Jonathon Hemingray undertaking the metalwork necessary for the hangings.
In 1989, The Revd Glynn Richerby (Vicar 1981-1993) wrote in Church Building magazine of the inspiration behind the commission which was envisaged, in part, ‘as adding interest and colour to a rather drab building’: “The inspiration for the design came from TS Eliot’s ‘Little Gidding’:
‘The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Life in the choice of pyre or pyre –
To be redeemed from fire by fire.’
A descending dove suggests the baptism of Jesus. Tongues of flame suggest the first Pentecost ... Combining these images at the font was a bringing together of baptism and confirmation … An image of a dove over the font and the blue carpet recalls the Spirit of God hovering over the waters at the beginning of Creation. Above the head of everyone baptised, will be a promise of new beginning available to everyone, reborn of water and spirit.”
The canopy has been in place now for nearly 40 years and still offers a valuable visual stimulus within the building; catching the evening light at the west end, providing a very helpful teaching aid for school visits and sermons alike, along with being such a
clear visual representation of the nature of Christian life and initiation. That new life through water and spirit, represented by the canopy, is still offered in that same place today – as it has been to countless candidates through the last four decades.
Moreover, each Easter Vigil, the faithful gather in that wonderful space to renew their baptismal vows. The canopy has survived even the most enthusiastic lifting of the paschal candle before it’s plunged into the waters of the font – without so much as a singe!’
About Juliet Hemingray: Juliet Hemingray first trained as an Art and Design teacher in Derby, England, in the 1970s. She was unsuccessful in securing a teaching post and spent the next few years mending clothes and making curtains, etc. It was in 1980 that a friend approached her to design and make an embroidered preaching scarf/tippet that he would wear at children’s services. He wanted to express the Gospel in a lively and colourful way, and so was created the first design of the God of creation who made the heaven and the earth – a scene of hills, sheep, fish, and stars, moon, sun and sky.
Over the years Juliet and her close knit team have been commissioned to produce thousands of stoles, altar frontals, banners, copes, mitres, chasubles and other religious regalia that is used throughout the world.
Further Information
See Juliet Hemingray’s Font Canopy on the Ecclesiart map here.