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Four Seasons Window

Four Seasons Alloway Parish Church Stained Glass Genesis Summer Winter Spring Autumna Seedtime Harvest

This window was gifted anonymously by two members of he congregation.  It was designed and installed by Susan Bradbury and dedicated in March 1996.

It is one of the five most recent windows in the Church designed by Susan and these, unlike most of our older stained glass windows, do not directly depict biblical characters.  In this case the theme is derived from the Book of Genesis Ch8 V22 "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease".  In that sense it links to the Helen Muir Rankine window that tells the story of Noah.  The hymn "Great is Thy faithfulness" by Thomas O Chisholm also reflects this theme in its second verse.

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Click on the image to move to the bottom of the page and "read" the window from the bottom upwards in more detail

Now we come full cycle with a Birch tree with naked twigs, but also with catkins ready for the next stage of regeneration.

4 Seasons Upper Winter.jpg
4 Seasons Autumn.jpg

In the next section we come to Keats "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" and we find fruit ready for picking on the trees and grain in the fields ready for harvesting.  One of our little "Christmas" friends also becomes more noticeable again.

As we move upward into the next season the bluebells give way to oxeye daisies and the crops grow taller.

4 Seasons Summer.jpg
4 Seasons Spring.jpg

As we move up the window we see bluebells and green shoots forecasting  future growth and crops.

The Window is best "read" from the bottom upwards.  Here we have the reference to Genesis Ch8 V22 and the imagery depicts the first stirrings of life within a litter of fallen leaves and yellow aconites.

A message of hope in hard times.

Four Seasons window Bottom Winter_HDR2.j

This Window is a favourite with younger (and young at heart) visitors who visit when the Church is open during the summer months.  They are challenged to identify the different seasons and to find:

A hedgehog, two ladybirds, a worm, two birds and five butterflies (or is it six?).

 

For many years now the Church has had "a" resident butterfly (or at least successive generations) who have thrived on the shelter and being sustained by fresh flowers each week.  "It"is quite often noticed at funeral services and at other poignant moments.

ALLOWAY
PARISH
CHURCH

+44 1292 442 083

secretary.allowaypc@gmail.com

 

40 Alloway

AYR​

KA7 4PQ

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Alloway Parish Church of Scotland, Alloway, KA7 4PQ, No. 100538

Scotttish Registered Charity No. SC012456

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