Church post for Maundy Thursday.
1 Apr 2010 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatYesterday it snowed. D-d and I drove to Peel, about 11 miles, for her dental appointment, in a howling gale and snow! But today it was calmer and sunnier. So I took advantage of having the day off work, and the nicer weather, to visit another of our island parish churches/graveyards.
This time it was the Parish church at Santon, St Sanctan's. Each time I do one of these posts I think of the beautiful English parish churches that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
keswindhover posts pictures of - and realise that ours are very, very different...
This one is particularly suitable for Maundy Thursday as the stained glass window (yes - in the singular) shows the Last Supper. (With a very spiffy bit of carpet...!)
Although there has been a keeil on the site since about 500AD, the current church was built in 1774, and is just a typical Manx parish church with its plain rectangular shape, whitewashed walls and wooden beamed roof.
So - under the cut are pictures of the inside and outside of the church, a few interesting grave stones, and a couple of wild-flower pictures - and a close-up of the window with the spiffy carpet -
Gate and East end of the church -
Note the gull... they get everywhere!
And west end with door -
This is just a general view - you can see there is still snow on the hills -
The people were not rich - many gravestones were quite small -
And it is a grave yard that catches the weather and so many of the stones are badly worn - even though many are less than 150 years old.
As is often the case in our graveyards there are a number of stones commemorating seamen who drowned -
(Nice to see Mary Eleanor left the greater portion of her estate to charity.)
And this one is the most interesting one I found -
Difficult to read, I know - it actually says Capt. George Kewley who was drowned off Grand Canary at lifeboat drill on the Royal Mail S.S. Congo November 3rd 1887.
(I can't help feeling that, if he was the captain, it might have been partly his own fault...!)
And this one is just to show what was a common use - Christian as a female's Christian name -
Now to the interior - as is often the case in our parish churches there are some ancient stone crosses inside -
There is a small Easter garden -
Here is the view from the west end towards the altar -
Here is the window above the sanctuary at the East end - the only stained glass in the building, again not unusual in our country parishes.
And a close up of the window -
I like the way that the roof of the upper room is so similar to that of the church, and I was very taken with the flowery, fringed, rug under Our Lord's feet!
This is the pulpit - clearly the original, and seemingly still in use -
And this is the view back from the sanctuary to the door, showing the organ in it's wee loft, and a painted coat of arms -
Here is a close-up of the coat of arms -
The coat of arms of William the Fourth who was the king of the UK, and so also Lord of Man at the time the church was built - so presumably it's been there since 1774.
And finally a couple of pictures of wild flowers - daisies;
And primroses - both found amongst the gravestones.
I have been to church this evening for the quiet, solemn, Tenebrae service - a series of readings and silence, which starts with nine lit candles, one of which is extinguished with each reading, followed by an equally quiet communion service and the re-lighting of the Christ candle.
I'm afraid that I was very distracted to start with by the first reader somehow managing to read totally the wrong thing! You'd have thought it might have occurred to him that he'd written it down wrongly when he realised he seemed to have the passage where Jesus walks on the water when the first reading should be of the last supper...
This time it was the Parish church at Santon, St Sanctan's. Each time I do one of these posts I think of the beautiful English parish churches that
keswindhover posts pictures of - and realise that ours are very, very different...This one is particularly suitable for Maundy Thursday as the stained glass window (yes - in the singular) shows the Last Supper. (With a very spiffy bit of carpet...!)
Although there has been a keeil on the site since about 500AD, the current church was built in 1774, and is just a typical Manx parish church with its plain rectangular shape, whitewashed walls and wooden beamed roof.
So - under the cut are pictures of the inside and outside of the church, a few interesting grave stones, and a couple of wild-flower pictures - and a close-up of the window with the spiffy carpet -
Gate and East end of the church -
Note the gull... they get everywhere!
And west end with door -
This is just a general view - you can see there is still snow on the hills -
The people were not rich - many gravestones were quite small -
And it is a grave yard that catches the weather and so many of the stones are badly worn - even though many are less than 150 years old.
As is often the case in our graveyards there are a number of stones commemorating seamen who drowned -
(Nice to see Mary Eleanor left the greater portion of her estate to charity.)
And this one is the most interesting one I found -
Difficult to read, I know - it actually says Capt. George Kewley who was drowned off Grand Canary at lifeboat drill on the Royal Mail S.S. Congo November 3rd 1887.
(I can't help feeling that, if he was the captain, it might have been partly his own fault...!)
And this one is just to show what was a common use - Christian as a female's Christian name -
Now to the interior - as is often the case in our parish churches there are some ancient stone crosses inside -
There is a small Easter garden -
Here is the view from the west end towards the altar -
Here is the window above the sanctuary at the East end - the only stained glass in the building, again not unusual in our country parishes.
And a close up of the window -
I like the way that the roof of the upper room is so similar to that of the church, and I was very taken with the flowery, fringed, rug under Our Lord's feet!
This is the pulpit - clearly the original, and seemingly still in use -
And this is the view back from the sanctuary to the door, showing the organ in it's wee loft, and a painted coat of arms -
Here is a close-up of the coat of arms -
The coat of arms of William the Fourth who was the king of the UK, and so also Lord of Man at the time the church was built - so presumably it's been there since 1774.
And finally a couple of pictures of wild flowers - daisies;
And primroses - both found amongst the gravestones.
I have been to church this evening for the quiet, solemn, Tenebrae service - a series of readings and silence, which starts with nine lit candles, one of which is extinguished with each reading, followed by an equally quiet communion service and the re-lighting of the Christ candle.
I'm afraid that I was very distracted to start with by the first reader somehow managing to read totally the wrong thing! You'd have thought it might have occurred to him that he'd written it down wrongly when he realised he seemed to have the passage where Jesus walks on the water when the first reading should be of the last supper...
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Date: 02/04/2010 12:42 am (UTC)I'm enjoying the pictures.
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Date: 02/04/2010 08:21 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 02/04/2010 01:33 am (UTC)Thanks for pointing out the flowery blue fringed rug under the Lord's feet! I had missed that, and it is quite striking now that I see it.
Added: I don't know who
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Date: 02/04/2010 08:27 am (UTC)Kes lives in the south of England, and has a real love of church buildings, so she sometimes posts photos of those within driving distance of her home, or those near the places she visits on holiday; such as this set (http://keswindhover.livejournal.com/435797.html#cutid1).
Whilst, in theory, both are Anglican parish churches, you can see that the ones in her part of England are a little more complex than our tiny ones.
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Date: 02/04/2010 02:31 am (UTC)The church and graveyard look so peaceful. Interesting that there's still snow on the mountaintops, while below flowers are beginning to show.
The seagull in the first picture made me chuckle. Here, too, they seem to be found everywhere. Lunch yesterday I fed one a french fry. He and his friends were hanging around mooching in the MacDonalds parking lot.
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Date: 02/04/2010 08:31 am (UTC)The gulls here would take your offered fry as a sign of weakness and mob you...!
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Date: 02/04/2010 08:11 am (UTC)When in error, bear down and finish!
I haven't been to a Maundy Thursday service in ages, and I do miss the somber reflection.
The rug under Jesus' feet makes me think about how women have always enjoyed making beautiful things with their hands. Can't you imagine the women who followed Jesus working on their handiwork when they had a moment to rest?
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Date: 02/04/2010 09:14 am (UTC)In the past we have shared a Maundy Thursday meal with the Anglican church which is right beside our church, but they have a new vicar and he just cancelled that unilaterally. So this Tenebrae service shared with our sister URC in Ramsey was an interesting new experience.
The stained glass rug is really interesting - clearly the artist felt that the Lord should have had something worthy under his feet - and when the window was painted that rug was it. But I really like your thought that Jesus' female followers carrying their spindles or their sewing with them - it hadn't occurred to me before but I shall certainly think on it now.
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Date: 02/04/2010 08:40 am (UTC)(And that is a very fine carpet. I notice Jesus and his disciples are eating off gold vessels as well - which seems historically unlikely.)
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Date: 02/04/2010 09:23 am (UTC)That sense of community is clear in the names in each churchyard - and I don't think there is a churchyard on the island where I have not found at least one 'lost at sea' - although it happening during lifeboat drill is somewhat unusual!
Jesus and the disciples seem to be using an eighteenth century Communion set - in some churches I would have wondered if it was the actual chalice etc. used in the church - but I cannot imagine Santon having gold stuff.
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Date: 02/04/2010 10:42 am (UTC)Yes, in Bude we have a lot of "sailor" graves - but have not spotted one about Lifeboats!!
Love to see an Easter Garden.
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Date: 02/04/2010 11:45 am (UTC)I really must take the camera to Maughold - there are some interesting sailors and travellers graves there.
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Date: 03/04/2010 05:37 am (UTC)I like the stone crosses, especially the second one, and the easter garden. It's much nicer, really, and a bit of a different theme, but it reminds me of how we used to decorate our baptismal "tub" for Holy Saturday. My church does not have a font large enough for immersion, unlike many new or remodeled churches, so we would bring a large tub in (some years it was a horse trough) and decorate it with plants and flowers. It's been known to miraculously sprout a few frogs and such critters as you might find around a pond or at the seashore...artificial of course, but they always made me smile!
Our new priest never quite caught on to the joke.
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Date: 03/04/2010 08:42 am (UTC)Pity the priest never quite got it.
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Date: 14/04/2010 03:06 pm (UTC)The stained glass is great -- I'm impressed with the carpet, too -- though doesn't Jesus look like he's having a good time?
The church looks quite Mexican to me -- like you see in those westerns where bandits are terrorising the locals and Lee van Cleef has to come in and show the local menfolk how to stand up for themselves.
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Date: 14/04/2010 05:49 pm (UTC)I see exactly what you mean about the church and Lee van Cleef - and yes - Jesus does look rather chipper there, with the nice rug, and the Sunday best tablecloth.