Flower Festival 2019. The Abbey Church, Ballasalla.
The Abbey Church is so named because it stands on ground that was part of the old Cistercian Monastery and Abbey.
It is a mid-nineteenth century church, a little more decorative than some of those on the island, but a fairly ordinary small parish church.
It was a little easier to see the Community theme here than it was at St Anthony's. Basically they started from 'The church is at the heart of the community'.
Almost the first thing I saw when I went in was very, very, familiar....
The Abbey Church is much loved by the local community as a place to marry....
When I saw this my first thought was 'That's one of our frames!' If you look at this post from last July you can see what I mean.
I mentioned to the lady stewarding that I recognised it and she was quite adamant that it was certainly not from St Andrew's - it had been made particularly for this display by the husband of the lady who had decorated it. I found myself thinking that, in that case, I certainly knew where she had got her inspiration!
Later I showed this picture to some of the people from our church and they all said "They have copied it almost twig for twig!"
Then I showed it to our church treasurer who said "Of course it is ours! The person from Ballasalla asked if she could borrow it and her husband came up with a big van to collect it!"
The lady who was so convincing clearly had the wrong end of the stick! And think how much it would have illustrated the idea of the island as one community if she had told people it was on loan from another church...
Anyway - the rest of my Abbey Church pictures.
This represented Fair Trade as part of a world-wide community.
And the font illustrated that children were welcomed into the church community; a hand knitted christening gown -
And nestled in the greenery at the bottom;
And, as in many of the churches, there was an area dedicated to the sea and the fishing community;
Here is a closer look at some of the nets and floats;
And this is a bit of a first I think - a fellow fisherman!
He/she is a razorbill. You can see him perched in the right hand corner of the window in the larger picture.
And this display illustrates cooperation within the community;
How? You might ask. Because it is a collaboration between the ladies who usually do the weekly church flowers and the Southern Flower Arranging Group who did most of the other displays!
Finally - at the bottom of that you could find these, which I rather liked.
There were arrangements in a couple more windows, but the lighting was such that they wouldn't have photographed well*, and weren't all that exciting anyway!
As usual, if you click on the pictures you will go to Flickr where you can enlarge them.
*I try not to use flash inside the churches - most people do likewise.
It is a mid-nineteenth century church, a little more decorative than some of those on the island, but a fairly ordinary small parish church.
It was a little easier to see the Community theme here than it was at St Anthony's. Basically they started from 'The church is at the heart of the community'.
Almost the first thing I saw when I went in was very, very, familiar....
The Abbey Church is much loved by the local community as a place to marry....
When I saw this my first thought was 'That's one of our frames!' If you look at this post from last July you can see what I mean.
I mentioned to the lady stewarding that I recognised it and she was quite adamant that it was certainly not from St Andrew's - it had been made particularly for this display by the husband of the lady who had decorated it. I found myself thinking that, in that case, I certainly knew where she had got her inspiration!
Later I showed this picture to some of the people from our church and they all said "They have copied it almost twig for twig!"
Then I showed it to our church treasurer who said "Of course it is ours! The person from Ballasalla asked if she could borrow it and her husband came up with a big van to collect it!"
The lady who was so convincing clearly had the wrong end of the stick! And think how much it would have illustrated the idea of the island as one community if she had told people it was on loan from another church...
Anyway - the rest of my Abbey Church pictures.
This represented Fair Trade as part of a world-wide community.
And the font illustrated that children were welcomed into the church community; a hand knitted christening gown -
And nestled in the greenery at the bottom;
And, as in many of the churches, there was an area dedicated to the sea and the fishing community;
Here is a closer look at some of the nets and floats;
And this is a bit of a first I think - a fellow fisherman!
He/she is a razorbill. You can see him perched in the right hand corner of the window in the larger picture.
And this display illustrates cooperation within the community;
How? You might ask. Because it is a collaboration between the ladies who usually do the weekly church flowers and the Southern Flower Arranging Group who did most of the other displays!
Finally - at the bottom of that you could find these, which I rather liked.
There were arrangements in a couple more windows, but the lighting was such that they wouldn't have photographed well*, and weren't all that exciting anyway!
As usual, if you click on the pictures you will go to Flickr where you can enlarge them.
*I try not to use flash inside the churches - most people do likewise.