Churches - Part Two

Here are some inside pictures of St. John’s Cathedral (anglican) and a few other churches I have visited the last couple of days.  After the foundation stone was laid in 1901 St. John’s Cathedral (the mother church of the Diocese of Brisbane) was built in three stages (1906-10, 1964-68, and 1989-2009) and is the only fully stone-vaulted ceiling in Australia. According to their pamphlet “it is likely to be the last neo-Gothic building to be completed in the world.” They have over 400 needlework seat cushions each displaying the local environment of Queensland, more than 150 stained glass lights and a baptismal font that is a fossilized piece of limestone over 350 million years old.   St. Stephen’s Chapel is Queensland’s Oldest Church and it is here Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first canonized saint, worshipped from 1870-71.  At St. Paul’s they were holding mass so I didn’t want to intrude on the services by taking pictures. I also found a couple of other churches to photograph as well. I have really enjoyed finding these churches and going inside those I could and have a quiet moment in the midst of a busy city.



St. John's Cathedral
I went back to take the tour of this church.





You can see the difference in the sandstone
and morter joints when the final
section was added.



Hand stitched seat cushions



Volunteer stitchers were given supplies and attended workshops.



Baptismal font.
I could see some of the fossilized shells in the supports.





St. Stephen's Chapel





Mary MacKallop statue carved from an 100 yr old
camphor laurel tree.





St. Paul's



Salvation Army where we worship.
I haven't taken any inside pictures yet.



St. Ann's Presbyterian



City Tabernacle Baptist Church



St. Andrew's Lutheran Church
(This is for Phil and Rachel)



All Saint's Church again with
inside view below.



Disappointed But Thankful

I learned Monday that the CityCat and CityFerries are not expected to be up and running for three months. Today we heard that it will be a limited operation as all 24 docks sustained some kind of damage and it will be 18 months before being fully operational. Unfortunately I never was able to ride them as I picked up the schedule the afternoon before the floodwaters came. I did take a picture of the ferries our first days here.  So I thought I would share them.  The smaller CityFerry is the intercity ferry while the larger CityCat travels further up and down the river.

You can see the CityCat coming towards you leaving its dock at Riverside, while the little CityFerry, the small boat with the blue stripe, is stopped at its dock at Eagle St Pier. The buildings around here have been pumping out most of the week. Eagle St Pier, the building with the domes which houses many popular restaurants, is also still cleaning up. The car park below was completely underwater. 

I feel bad that I’m so disappointed to miss out on this opportunity of traveling up and down the river on the ferries and visiting the many riverside attractions. Then I realize how fortunate we are to be safe and well when so many others are without homes, many businesses have been affected and lives have been lost. So we will get around as best we can and see what we are able to. Except the three days we were stuck inside I have been able to be out exploring everyday.

Thank you God for your protection!




Items damaged by floodwaters waiting for garbage pickup.

 



Sign in gardens about the 1893 flood of Brisbane.





Footpath along garden riverbank blocked off.





Riverwalk partially underwater.





Cleanup downtown. Bob's building is off to the upper left.



City Botanic Gardens Part I

This morning I went to the City Botanic Gardens (there are also the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha 15 minutes from the city center). Usually they have a guided tour, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but they have been temporarily suspended, so I spent about an hour and a half wandering through on my own. Some areas were blocked off, I’m guessing it’s because the rains and floods have made the grounds saturated. I took so many pictures that it would take me too many postings to show you them all. So I struggled to pick some to share. Today I will post some general pictures. Next time I will post some of the flowers and friends I met along the way.



This was the curator's residence, it is now a cafe.
During WWII it was used as a mess hall.





I like that you can see the building
through the trees.

Banyan Fig Tree



Figs of the Banyan tree





I took a break and relaxed under this tree.







Want To Trade a Few Degrees?

Tuesday I wanted to go back to St. John's Anglican Church and take their tour and visit a couple of more churches.  I left for the 10am tour and arrived looking forward to the coolness of the church. Even though it was just a few blocks away I was very warm.  It wasn’t much cooler inside but it was an enjoyable, informative hour and a half.  I was going to go down and get pictures of the other churches I had missed yesterday and visit another church a street or two away but realized I forgot to bring the address with me. The heat was quite overwhelming, and I decided to go home and regroup. On my way home I saw people pushing the crosswalk button and going back into the shade of the buildings to stay cooler, a man whose business shirt was drenched with sweat and a young man finding some relief in the shade of a lamp post. When I arrived home Bob informed me it was 88⁰ and it wasn’t even noon! I don’t know what the humidity level was at, but it was oppressive.

While walking home I thought if you would send just a few degrees of your cold my way, I would be glad to send several degrees of heat your way. Any takers?

                       

2:30pm it’s down to 86⁰….time for the pool!

(On the evening news we heard it hit 95 degrees and was the hottest day in the last 12 months. Thunderstorms came in the late afternoon.)

Churches

While walking to church the last couple of weeks, I noticed we passed a number of other churches. I decided I wanted to make a day of photographing these churches and touring the ones I could. I had a great day and it was nice just to take some time in a couple of these churches to sit and pray and worship on my own. I learned that the Uniting Churches are a combination of three churches. In 1977 the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Churches decided they would join together to create the Uniting Church.

I realized later that I had missed a couple of churches (including the one we attend) as I had to keep crossing the street to capture pictures and ended up not backtracking as I had planned. One of the churches has specific tour times that I missed. So look for another posting or two of Churches.



Good Shepherd Church of Christ
(Korean Services)



St. John's Cathedral





St. Andrew's Uniting Church
This was a Presbyterian church before merging with St. Ann's



Inside St Andrew's





Inside St. Andrew's



All Saint's Church (Anglican)



 Albert Street Uniting Church
This church opened in 1889 although the history
goes back to the first methodist meeting in 1847



Inside Albert Street