A 15th-century carved stone beast and a rare Marc Chagall lithograph portfolio are on display inside Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, connecting the Episcopal church to both its English namesake and one of the 20th century's most celebrated artists.

The church announced the installations Monday, Aug. 17, in a parish blog post written by Deborah Odette.

The stone, known simply as "the Beast," is a grotesque carved coign that once jutted from the nave battlements of St. Dunstan's Church in Cranbrook, Kent, England. The medieval carving features a series of heads, some pierced to serve as waterspouts. It sat in St. Dunstan's churchyard for decades before being sent across the Atlantic in 1931 at the request of Henry Scripps Booth, whose family traced its roots to that same English town and named their Michigan estate after it.

In a July 22, 1931, letter to Booth, the Rev. Swingler of St. Dunstan's described the gift: "With regard to the stone itself I am afraid you cannot call it beautiful, but it is a fifteenth-century carving as far as I can tell which once formed part of the string course which runs at the base of the Nave."

Once in Michigan, the Beast was placed outside St. Dunstan's Chapel at Christ Church Cranbrook. It was reinstalled outdoors after the Little Lambs playground was built.

Children eventually decorated it with sidewalk chalk.

That prompted the church to bring it inside for good, and it now sits on a pedestal at the back of St. Paul's Chapel.

The second addition is a portfolio of 24 color lithographs titled "The Story of the Exodus," created by Chagall in 1966 and published by Leon Amiel. The prints depict scenes from the Old Testament, including the infant Moses found among the bulrushes and Moses before the burning bush. The total edition comprised 285 signed portfolios.

Richard and Joanne Brodie gifted an edition to the church in 2023. It is now permanently housed in the sanctuary beneath the leaded glass library window in a specially constructed plexiglass vitrine. Because works on paper are light-sensitive, the church will rotate which of the 24 prints is on view, giving visitors a chance to see the full series over time.

Ethan and Gretchen Davidson and Fr. Bill and Claire Danaher funded the installation of both works.

Laura MacNewman, associate archivist at the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, documented the 1930–1931 correspondence about the stone in a March 10, 2023, Cranbrook Kitchen Sink blog post, noting that Henry Scripps Booth "contributed great efforts to building relationships between the old and new Cranbrooks by establishing and maintaining connections between the two churches."

Christ Church Cranbrook is located at 470 Church Road in Bloomfield Hills. Visitors can contact the church at 248-644-5210 or visit christchurchcranbrook.org for service times and access information.