Church post for Maundy Thursday.
Yesterday 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 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...