Arrochar Parish Church The Restoration of 2003
		The major work of restoration has now been completed and we are into the realms of 'planned improvements.' The first of these is in the Church itself. In the corner opposite the 'Palm Sunday' window was a half-coloured window which was brought from Luss in the 1950s. This window has now been fitted into the tower where it looks superb and a new window, on the theme of motherhood, has been commissioned from Lorraine Lamond, a stained-glass designer based in Glasgow and recommended to us by the Artistic Matters Committee of the Church of Scotland which has also approved the design. This window will be installed sometime during the autumn of this year. Staying on the theme of windows, the work for our own property committee this year will be to install new windows in our little Church Hall. This work is planned to be undertaken during the month of October. July saw the instalation of pew cushions. What a difference these have made to the comfort, and to the look of the Church. Our new pew cushions Our new window This window was installed at the start of December. Designed and made by Lorraine Lamond, it is a beautiful window which reflects the reality that ours is not only an old Church but a newly restored Church for folk living in the twenty-first century. The theme of the window is Loch Sloy and motherhood and is the gift of the late John Gray. Loch Sloy, the traditional home of the Clan MacFarlane, was where John's mother lived and the window is to the Glory of God and in memory of his mother. But Loch Sloy is also the earth-mother of Clan MacFarlane to which John Gray belonged and so the window is a reminder of a shared inheritance. On the hillside above the waters can be seen the cranberries which are part of the Clan crest and the mother figure is seen with a baby in her arms and with four young children around her. For the Church this window provides a profoundly important image of our birth 'through the waters' - the baptism by which we are brought into membership of Jesus' Church and through which our journey through life is sustained.