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Sabbatical Post Script #36 (13) Part 2 of Mt. Stuart House

8/13/2020

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Hello travelers!  Welcome back to our tour of Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute in Scotland.

Today we enter and begin our tour of the House with the Chapel.

After entering the Main Grand Entrance, making our way up 10 (or so) stairs, and passing through a large doorway, we can see on our left two beautiful stained glass windows...
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In the window above, on the left, we have a daughter of Pharaoh and all of her ladies maids discovering the baby Moses in his reed basket on the Nile River.  On the right is Moses, as an adult, at the burning bush.  However, different than in the biblical story, with the voice of Creator coming from the bush, here we see Mary and baby Jesus.

In the photo below, on the left is an image of Moses holding up the Bronze Snake on the Staff (the same staff - sans snake - that parted the Red Sea).  The Israelites were instructed to gaze upon the bronze snake on the staff to cure them of snake bites...
​Don't remember this story? Click here for more information.

The panel on the right, below is Moses, as an old man, singing his final Doxology before his death - on the edge of the Promise Land, never to make it across to the other side, because he doubted God.  Yet, Jesus is there, with his angelic throng, to welcome Moses to Heaven.
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Just past this second stained glass window is the door to the Chapel, on the left...


​

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Like I mentioned last week, it's as large as MANY smaller churches in the United Kingdom and North America.

And the work of all the laborers and crafts-folk who created this place (most likely for meager pay) did an amazing job!  It is beautiful and filled with the toil and sweat of many people who never got the chance to then use it.  (But that's true of the whole house.)

Let's take a closer look at the altar.

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There are a lot of biblical references here, more than I can name in this moment.
Which one's can you see?

In the photo below of the inside of the spire, "one of these things is not like the other."
​Can you see it?  Leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post, if you found it!
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And if we turn around at the altar...

We can see the back of the chapel - complete with a "balcony" window.
The marble mosaic floor is simply stunning, and if I close my eyes, I can see the crafts-folk working on it with pain staking skill and precision.

Nope. I have no idea where the keyboard is for the organ pipes. :)
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Part of what makes this House so much fun to tour are ALL of the intricate details in EVERYTHING of EVERY ROOM!

For example, here is the base of one of the 6ft. tall candle holders  - Lots of cherubim!
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And here... carved into the legs of one of the "pew" seats, the representation of a griffon!
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That's all for the Chapel this week.

Please, join me next week for the Marble Hall!

Blessings on your Journey,
Pastor Emilia
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    Sabbatical
    ​Post Scripts

    In the summer of 2019 Rev. Emilia Halstead took a 3 month sabbatical.  Seven weeks of that time she spend in Scotland.  This series began on the weekly e-mail of the church.  In an effort to make it available to more people, we've moved it here to our website.

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First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ
79 Clinton Street, Concord, NH | 03301

603.225.5491