Christmas cheer on the cards at Paisley Abbey
Festive greeting features stained-glass image
23.10.2018 Paisley Abbey has taken a detail from one of its magnificent stained-glass windows and turned it into a beautiful Christmas card.
The image is from what is known as the Children’s Window and features Mary praying over the baby Jesus in his crib.
The card is sale now and proceeds will go to help with the upkeep of the 12th Century church.
Abbey minister Rev Alan Birss said the window was gifted by the Coats threadmill family in memory of Eric Coats, who died in May 1918 and is buried near Calais.
“I imagine the emphasis is, because it’s a Children’s Window, that whoever put it in was thinking of the young man dying in the First World War,” he said.
The abbey produces its own distinctive Christmas card most years, and the subjects have been varied.
“We’ve had the whole of the Children’s Window, we’ve had the nativity scene from the St Mirin Chapel, we had outdoor scenes of the abbey in snow and we’ve had a drawing of the abbey with choristers which somebody made,” Mr Birss said.
The cards, which are sold in packs of 10, always prove popular with members of the abbey congregation and visitors to the church’s shop. A couple of thousand are usually sold.
“Last year we sold out,” Mr Birss said.
“And I suppose it because it’s something from Paisley, it’s got that connection.”
The abbey shop, where the cards are sold as part of a large range of goods, is very important for fundraising.
“The shop contributes a lot of money to the abbey,” Mr Birss said.
“It’s between £ 30,000 and £35,000.
“We have a little sign here saying that it costs £1,000 a day to run the abbey, so that’s £300,000plus a year.
“And that’s because of all the costs of maintenance to the abbey.
“We don’t get any funding from the Government or anywhere else. “So the shop is very important.” The cards cost £2.99 for 10 and are available now at the abbey shop.
On the weekend of November 10 and 11, the shop will be holding a special discount event, when everything in the shop will be reduced by 10 percent.