The Tour – Page 5 – BELLSHILL: CENTRAL PARISH CHURCH OF SCOTLAND

Bellshill Central Parish Church is extremely fortunate to have many beautiful stained glass windows.

The corner windows were gifted in memory of the Blackie Family, benefactors of the Church for many years and were dedicated on 14 October 1973. These were designed by the renowned Gordon Webster with the leadwork being undertaken by Neil Hutchison.

The pictures displayed in the windows help you focus on the stories which lie behind and which, in fact, tell the whole story of the Bible. You are welcome to visit the Church, look at the windows and then read in one of the Pew Bibles the whole story depicted in each window.

ST MATTHEW WINDOW (West Side at vestry)

This window shows two separate stories from the Bible. On the right had frame Jesus can be seen at Lake Galilee, with the town in the background, inviting Andrew and Peter to join Him with the words. ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ See Matthew 4, 18 – 22 (page 6 of the Pew Bible). Look at the detail of the houses, water and fish.

The left hand frame depicts the story of the workers in the vineyard, as written in the first 16 verses of Matthew Chapter 20 (page 29 of the Pew Bible). The workers had been hired to do a day’s work for one silver coin. Some had started in the morning, others at lunch time and more later in the day. Some grapes can be seen hanging on the vines and same have already been gathered into a basket. At the end of the working day, everyone received the same wage for their efforts which caused some industrial unrest. Jesus concludes at verse 16, ‘So those who are last will be first and those who are first will be last’

A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism.

Here are some facts:

The Baptismal Font in Bellshill Central Parish Church is not the original font for the building.
It was gifted to what was Macdonald Memorial Church of Scotland in 1943 by the junior choir.
It is a solid wood font, but still moveable around the Choir Box.
It contains the original pewter bowl from Bellshill Free Church, which has been incorporated into subsequent fonts.
It features an eight-sided design, which is a reminder of the new creation and as a connection to the practice of circumcision, which traditionally occurs on the eighth day.
Saint Ambrose wrote that fonts (and baptisteries) were octagonal “because on the eighth day, by rising, Christ loosens the bondage of death and receives the dead from their graves”. Saint Augustine similarly described the eighth day as “everlasting… hallowed by the resurrection of Christ”.

The eight panels around the top each has a story engraved thereon:

1. To the Glory of God
Presented to Macdonald Memorial Church
by The Junior Choir
October 1943

2. and 3. The panel to the left of the presentation inscription has the Greek letter Alpha and the panel to the right shows Omega –

Revelations 1:8 (Page 313 of Pew Bible) says: ‘I am the first and the last,’ says the Lord God Almighty, who is, who was and who is to come.

4. Moving right from Omega, the next panel shows Jesus baptism, with a dove overhead and a finger pointing from the sky.

Matthew 3;16-17 (Page 6 of Pew Bible) says: As soon as Jesus was baptized, he came up out of the water. Then heaven was opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and alighting on him. Then a voice said from heaven, ‘This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased.’

5. The next panel shows this symbol:

The Chi Rho is a symbol made from the first two letters of “Christ” in Greek. It is said that before an important battle, the Emperor Constantine saw this symbol in the sky and heard the words “By this sign, conquer”