A special treasure of St Peter’s is John Piper’s Palm Sunday Window, to the left of the door as you enter. On bright days the sunlight streams through the vivid blue, gold and green tones so favoured by this artist. The window is illuminated from dusk until 11.00pm all year.
The window was funded from a bequest made by the late Alderman Bellamy (Hon. M.A., J.P.) and Mrs Maud Emma Bellamy his wife. They left £1000 for a memorial window which should relate to the text “suffer the little children to come unto me.”
John Piper visited the church and suggested an artistic representation of the children who greeted Christ as he entered Jerusalem.
The window was made by Patrick Reyntiens who had worked with John Piper on the Baptistery window in Coventry Cathedral. Piper in fact drew the outline of his sons’ hands as the design for the child-sized hands at the bottom of the window.
The window was installed and consecrated on Monday 29th June 1976. We are proud that our window sits alongside the Piper windows in other Oxfordshire churches, at Nettlebed and St Mary the Virgin, Iffley.