MAGAZINE FALL 2023

Images That Inspire WORSHIP

Nancy Voskuyl, a Westmont student and the daughter of President Roger and Trudy Voskuyl, died in a tragic

automobile accident in 1959. To honor her, the college built the Nancy Voskuyl Memorial Prayer Chapel. Then professor Ed Bouslough and his wife, Betty, close family friends, commissioned and donated a stained glass window of Jesus for the building. 

More than 60 years later, the window has become dated. “We decided to replace it with a series of rotating images

that will broaden our understanding of the universal reach of Christ, thereby providing a powerful educational moment,” says President Gayle D. Beebe. “The Voskuyl family has been incredibly understanding and supportive. Through their interaction with this project, Jane Voskuyl Jackson ’65, Nancy’s sister, and her husband, David, have reconnected with the college. They’ve generously offered to create a new stained glass window of the first image: ‘Station XV: Resurrection’ by Scott Parsons.”

The college launched Looking Back, Looking Forward: Images for Worship and Devotion to choose new images better suited for a diverse evangelical college community. Professors hosted four Capax Dei groups of eight students, each studying a different book to develop concepts reflecting the following themes: 

• Jesus through the centuries 
• Worship around the world 
• Worshipping through the liturgical year
• Elements of Christian worship

Westmont then requested submissions of images by Christian artists and selected nine to appear in the chapel on a rotating basis. The proposal stated, “Westmont is committed to an artist-friendly process to develop fresh and bold contemporary Christian imagery for long-term use in this beautiful chapel worship setting.” 

“Our memorial chapel is a place of prayer that honors a student who died,” Beebe says. “The new images will become inspiring focal points for worship, prayer and devotion.” 

Read more about this project in “A Window into Images of Jesus” in the fall 2020 issue of the Westmont magazine.