Just Ice and Whiskey: A Land Down Under

December 25th

Merry Christmas from Australia!

Dan found a way to edit the photo with silly Christmas things.

Jim and Sherrie's Christmas photo.

We went to St. Monica's Cathedral in Cairns for Christmas Mass.

It had really unique stained glass windows.

The two sides are the Creation in Genesis and the rear window in the Nave is the Peace Window.

Window 1 Window 2 Window 3 Window 4

"Window 1 expresses emptiness, the void, darkness. It is a wholly alien world. There are some intimations of dust clouds. In front of these are twisting shapes to suggest twining rope, or umbilical cords, or strands of proteins from which DNA and life itself will form.

The center of Window 2 is as bright as Window 1 is dark. The clear white center of the cross is a prism which when struck by the afternoon sunlight casts sprays of rainbow lights on the floor of the cathedral. This is the light itself. This is the first act of Creation.

The Hubble Space Telescope is revolutionizing our understanding of Space. A striking image it has provided is the three pillars of dust from the heart of the Eagle nebula. In these Pillars of Creation, trillions of kilometers high, stars are being born. Here are images of Creation on a grand scale. They are the dominate themes of Windows 2, 3, and 4. Not only are these images scientifically accurate, they hint at the presence of the Triune Creator God: the imposing figures of God as Father, the corporeal figure of the Son, and the wispy ethereal shape of the Spirit.

Behind these figures is a red band of photo-ionized hydrogen in which the Horsehead nebula is shown at the top of Window 3."

Window 4 Window 5 Window 6

"The dominant image above this red band is a spiral galaxy viewed from above, as our own Milky Way would look. Between the spiral arms in the deep Space background are astronomical fantasies along with many realities such as The Southern Cross and the Pointers (top left Window 4).

Our Sun is but one of the stars in this spiral galaxy. Spinning out from this galaxy, in the lower Windows 5 & 6, are the four inner planets in our solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth with its silvery moon, and Mars in Window 6."

Window 6 Window 7 Window 8

"Springing from the base of Window 6 is another set of ribbons forming the boundaries of sky, land, and sea. Space, providing the dominant themes for the first 6 windows, ends in the top of Windows 7 and 8. Against the background of the last arm of the spiral galaxy are the five outer planets of our solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

From the base of Window 6, in a powerful upward diagonal sweep, the land appears. From the dust of Space emerges a symmetrical volcanic cinder cone (Window 8). The ash and weirdly colored clouds suggest a huge chemical experiment. The colors represent the Earth's minerals - gold, bauxite, iron, and copper. The ash itself begins to form soil."

Window 7 Window 8 Window 9

"At the top of Window 8 the hundreds of millions of stars cease, while at the bottom the great plenitude of life on Earth begins. Within the sea form thousands of micro-organisms increasing in size across the panels."

In Window 9 another volcano explodes. Its red rivers of fire flow across the windows and consolidate the land into locally recognizable forms such as the Undara Lava Tubes (Window 8). To the right of the erupting volcano, greyly granitic and un-vegetated are Mt. Tyson and Mt. Bartle Frere."

Window 10 Window 11 Window 12

"In Window 10 are the Chillagoe lime bluffs and Mt. Mulligan with Newcastle Range between. Below are some of the Atherton Tableland's Seven Sisters. Window 11 has Thornton's Peak, the Cooktown mountainscape, Mt. Pyke, and Lighthouse Rock. Window 12 has peninsular mountain ranges Altonmoui, Melville, and Mt. Tozer. At sea level the last lava flow peters out into the sea at Cape York itself, with some of the Torres Strait Islands off shore.

Springing immediately from the point of creation of living matter, in a swirling spiral of color evoking the helix from of DNA, bursts forth a great proliferation of marine life forms. As the windows progress the unfolding of life takes on ever more complex and stunningly beautiful shapes at the base of window after window, until by Window 12 the Reef and all its diverse life forms are completed. The Reef ends by sharply falling off into a deep chasm leading the eye to the wrecks in the depths of the Peace Window."

"The East windows celebrate 50 years of peace in the Pacific region since WWII. The Cathedral itself was built as a war memorial commemorating the decisive Battle of the Coral Sea which was fought due east of Cairns. The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first in naval history in which ships did not fire at each other. It was a battle of aircraft carriers and aircraft. As such it became the precursor to modern day missile warfare. The windows incorporate layers of meaning - natural, historical, and spiritual."

"The strange dense black wriggling clouds are the mingling of smoke from burning ships, aircraft carriers with their lethal combination of aviation gasoline and fuel oil burning fiercely. A smudged dove - the Holy Spirit - struggles to emerge in the upper right window, while the left is a rainbow with the clouds parting to reveal the sun - recalling Noah's story with God's renewed Covenant.

Whales and dolphins frolic in a procession across the window. In a joyful freeing way they represent God's presence - as angels would have done in a more traditional religious windows. They hint that they are the intelligent ones who do not go to War!"

"In the lower foreground is an Aichi D3A1 Val dive bomber, accurate to 1/3 scale. This aircraft was specifically chosen because it was the first aircraft to drop bombs on Pearl Harbor and Darwin. At the end of the War none were left in flying condition. They had been used as kami-kaze aircraft.

Behind the Aichi is an American Grumman F4F Wildcat flown extensively from aircraft carriers. The gigantic aircraft carrier USS Lexington lies behind. The huge hole in its side is where stored warheads exploded after taking five direct hits.

At the lower left two emperor angel fish dawdle past. A stonefish shelters behind the brain coral: the shape of the human brain - an irony - reminding us that while we may be the most intelligent creatures on Earth we are also the only ones that wage savage war against each other."

"The top wreck, the Shoho, a Japanese submarine tender was hastily converted to a light aircraft carrier when the value of the aerial warfare was realized. She was repeatedly torpedoed and sank within fifteen minutes. Immediately below the Shoho is the rear portion of the USS Sims which was hit by three bombs amidships, split in two, and sank immediately.

In the foreground is an SMLE .303 rifle which completes the representation of the three branches of the armed forces within this window. To the left on the sand are three helmets representing the three forces - American, Japanese, and Australian."

"Peace is written in 28 other languages around the boarder of the windows."

Window 13 Window 14 Window 15 Window 16

"Windows 13 to 20 begin with another trio of themes - landscape, flora, and fauna. Just as the mountains of Windows 8 to 12 provide a south to north profile of the Cairns diocese, so Windows 13 to 20 depict east to west profiles. The first flora is a fossilised stromatalite.

Window 13 commences with the Normanton grassland behind which is the Gulf of Carpentaria and above it the unique Morning Glory Cloud formation. In the foreground are hard heat-chiselled rocks.

Window 14 begins a Georgetown landscape complete with anthills and the beginnings of the Great Wall of China - the Newcastle Range.

The flora progresses through Window 15 as primitive cycads and pandanus, dry woodland eucalyptus until in a growing intensity of greenness the super abundance of the giant tree ferns and mosses of the rain forest are depicted.

By Window 16 a waterfall is flowing over these rocks, as coll and refreshing as the lava flowing on the opposite side of the Cathedral is hot."

Window 16 Window 17 Window 18 Window 19

"Window 18 overlooks the Cairns coastal plain, Trinity Inlet, and the Yarrabah Penisula. As the windows progress, a monotreme echidna and marsupial wallabies are completely at home in their habitat. These three major themes of landscape, flora, and fauna are intensified in color, form, detail, and complex interrelationship until like an orchestrated fanfare the crowning glory of creation - humanity - is delivered in the middle of Window 18."

Window 18 Window 19 Window 20 Window 21

"Window 19 is a tranquil, restful evening scene.

In the sky above the exiles, something extraordinary is happening. The violet of the evening sky is changing shape and intimates for the first time that the entire created world is being drawn towards its finality (Window 20).

The sky bursts into life in window Bottom 9 as the physical world melts away. The clouds, the sunset, the mountains, leaves and tree trunks are all inexorably intensified in color and drawn in a perfect spiral to a point of brilliant light in the final image of the windows. All things are returning to God (Window 21)."

Window 20 Window 21 Window 22 Window 23 Window 24

"Window 22 - The Day of the Lord will come .. and then with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and fall apart, the earth and all that it contains will be burnt up. Since everything is coming to an end like this, you should be living holy and saintly lives.... (2 Peter 3/10-11)

Window 23 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, and the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all dressed for her husband. .. It had all the radiant glory of God and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond.... (Revelations 21/1-2,11)

Window 24 - What you have come to is nothing known to the senses; not a blazing fire, or a gloom turning to total darkness, or a storm; or trumpeting thunder or the great voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them... you have come to God.. (Hebrews 12/18,19,23)"

Anyway, the windows are neat.