St. Andrew’s Brockley:
The Burning Bush Window

The window at the front of St. Andrew’s Sanctuary is believed to be the only remaining original piece of Stained Glass, from 1882, in the church building.

During World War 2, a bomb exploding across Wickham Road is believed to have damaged the stained glass in the church.
The Church building itself seems to have protected this glass from the force of the blast.

The image is of the Burning Bush. This is a visual depiction of the encounter between God and Moses in Exodus 3:

“Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed”.

During the Reformation, the Presbyterians adopted the image of the Burning bush as their symbol.

The latin motto “nec tamen consumebatur” (yet it was not consumed) had real power for them too. The symbolism of God working; of the potential destructive nature of the fires of political and society upheaval they could see around them; and the assurance that, despite the turmoil, they would not be destroyed by it, spoke to them in their struggles.

St. Andrew’s was built as a Presbyterian church and it is fitting that this symbol which links us back to the Reformation, as well as to God speaking to Moses, is one of the focal points for us.

The lettering on the window has faded over the past 140 years but, in many ways the fact that it has faded with time, and the elements, is as important as the resilience of the window itself.

Through wars, community upheaval and change, we are not consumed - we are here.