We fly back to Perth later today. We spent the whole day mooching about Cairns, with me feeling oppressed by the humidity. Although I infinitely prefer the feel of the old town, I now undertand why the shopping malls are so much busier - it is completely air conditioned inside.
We looked at some wonderful stained glass windows in St Monicas Church. These are the biggest themed stained glass windows in Australia (maybe the world) and were truly beautiful. It was the story of the 7 days of creation, and the different things created by God on the different days, but with some specifically Australian animals (kangaroo, cassowary, gallah etc). There was some interesting phraseology about the subject matter outside the church. "The windows depict the Creation according to the book of Genesis". Looks like there is now acceptance that different cultures have varying interpretations of what and how creation took place, and it is now deemed appropriate to describe which version of Creation is being depicted. Particularly in Australia, Creation would be different from an aboriginal perspective, and from our travels in other places, such as Canada, the First Peoples had stories about the role of Raven in Creation.
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| God has separated sky from earth, and started to populate the sea |
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| God has put plants and animals upon the earth |
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| This is an Australian Creation - note the cassowary and aboriginal features in the rocks |
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| Kangaroos are represented in the Australian Creation. I think the details must be painted. |
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