Universalis

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Lenten Pilgrimage - 36

Today we are at the glorious church of St Anne's on the Main Road of Strathpeffer.



This Church was built as a memorial to the late Anne, Duchess of Sutherland, and dedicated to the Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It is of Gothic style, built of freestone from a local quarry. The ceiling is finished in dressed wood panelling. In addition to twenty-one fine stained glass windows, the complete furnishings of the interior, remarkable for their artistic value and refinement, are gifts from friends and visitors.

A fine organ, a peal of eight bells, an altar of sculptured marble are also memorials to well-known families in the neighbourhood.

The altar and reredos are of sculptured marble and depict the Risen Lord with St John and Our Lady, St Mary, with an Angel on either side. The altar panels show the Annunciation, the Visit of the Magi, and The Holy Family. In 1936 the organ was reconstructed as a memorial to the late Sir Arthur Mackenzie of Coul.

A small stone altar taken from St Mary’s Church, Highfield, Muir of Ord, was rededicated to St Mary and stands in the side aisle.

The silver cross and candlesticks for the Lady Chapel were a gift from Mrs B MacDonald, and the weekday wooden cross was made by Mr Cheyne of Evanton. A replacement wooden cross and candlesticks for weekday use on the high altar were a gift from the late Mrs Woolley and were used by her husband who was a Chaplain in the 1939-45 War, during the North Africa Campaign. He was also awarded the V.C. in the First World War.

Drop, drop, slow tears, and bathe those beauteous feet,
which brought from heaven the news and Prince of Peace.

Cease not, wet eyes, his mercies to entreat;
to cry for vengeance sin doth never cease.

In your deep floods drown all my faults and fears;
nor let his eye see sin, but through my tears.


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