A church in Childs Hill has won funding to help create a memorial to show the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the local community.

All Saints’ Church has been awarded more than £18,000 by Barnet Council to create a set of stained-glass windows that will draw together different experiences of the pandemic “to tell a collective story of sacrifice and endurance”.

Artist Sophie Hacker was commissioned to design the artwork “to honour and celebrate the dedication and sacrifice of the Childs Hill community, NHS staff, essential workers and unseen carers”, according to details of the project outlined in a funding bid presented to a meeting of the council’s west area committee on Thursday.

The windows will be placed on the outside of the church above a public footpath running from Cricklewood Lane to Church Walk. Facing north, towards All Saints’ School, a fifth window will represent children’s experiences of the pandemic.

Reverend Robin Sims-Williams, priest-in-charge at All Saints’, told the meeting the windows would “offer the opportunity for people to come and reflect on their own experiences, which are diverse and complex, and help people to process some of that and hopefully address some of the mental health issues that will be with us for many years to come”.

He added that the window facing the school “tells the story of the children’s experience of empty classrooms, working from home, and then the reunification with friends and family and the ability to re-engage with people, albeit with new restrictions”.

The windows are designed to be viewed from the outside of the church, as they were blocked off from the inside of the building when it was rebuilt after being damaged by a fire in 1940. Revd Sims-Williams said unblocking the windows may not be possible because of subsidence.

The church has already hosted workshops where people from the local community were able to share their own stories of the pandemic through words, objects and photographs, which will form the basis of the artist’s design.

Members of the committee unanimously approved the request for funding, which will come from a pot of money raised from developers known as the neighbourhood community infrastructure levy. The church has also raised money for the project via funding events and private donations.