41. KNEELERS

How many hours have church ladies spent designing and creating church kneelers? The patterns are interesting. From left: the crossed keys and inverted cross of St Peter, the Jerusalem Cross, the Maltese Cross, a small sailing craft (of the Sea of Galilee?     INDEX

42. EAGLE LECTERN

The lectern is where the Bible is placed. The eagle is a common design for such lecterns, possibly referring to Isaiah 40:31 : they will soar on wings as eagles.

43. PSALM BOARD AND CRUCIFIX

The Psalm board carries the number of the Psalm(s) of the day. This board is in memory of Percy C. Burrows who gave his life in France in 1918. The nearby crucifix reminds us of Another who gave his life for us.

44. PULPIT

The pulpit is the place from where the Word of God is expounded week by week. This pulpit is in memory of Jane Barker who died in 1940. Baldina is a small country community 17 km east of Burra.

45. SANCTUARY

Passing through the sanctuary arch we come to the sanctuary itself, with the altar and East window the prominent features.

46. SANCTUARY ROOF

Above us, the sanctuary roof with its diagonal timber planks matches the nave roof, though on a smaller scale.

47. SANCTUARY LAMP

Strictly, the sanctuary lamp indicates the presence of the Eucharistic Elements in the Tabernacle (or aumbry). Here, at some distance from the tabernacle, the congregation probably regards it as indicating the presence of God. This lamp is in memory of William Alfred Field who died in 1989. This plaque is at the East side of the South chapel (#32).

48. SANCTUARY CHAIR AND SIDE WINDOW

On the North side of the sanctuary is a chair and a stained glass window. The window is a pair to The Children’s Window (#18), but this window contains various symbols of Christ. In particular, there is an image of a pelican. The legend is that the mother pelican feeds her chicks in hard times with blood drawn from her breast.

49. SOUTHEAST SANCTUARY

The small group of objects in this corner is made up of a banner showing the churches of the Burra parish, a Bible on an altar stand in the wall niche, and a brass platten.   

50. ALTAR

A focus in the sanctuary is the impressively large wooden altar. Each of the three front panels bears a symbol: an M and crown for the Virgin Mary, the IHS Christogram made up of the first three letters of the name ‘Jesus’ in Latinized Greek, and an unexplained eagle(?).

51. REREDOS AND CROSS

Behind the altar stands a decorative timber reredos, forming a background to six candles and an ornamental Cross. The Cross is decorated with greenish gemstones – presumably copper based and mined locally.

52. EAST WINDOW

The richly decorated East window is a Crucifixion window, the lower lancets showing Christ on the Cross with St Mary and St John on either side. The windows are in memory of husband and wife Alexander McCulloch (died 1890) and Margaret McEwan (died 1881). This completes our tour of this lovely church.