I am staying with Father Len Black and his family at St Michael and All Angels on the other side of the River Ness from the Inverness city centre. We had a great Mass this morning. The church is easily reached on foot by crossing the suspension foot bridge which the locals call the shakey bridge . . . but it's perfectly safe! . . . with magnificent views up river to Ben Wyvis in the distance, and down river to the Castle.Inverness is the Capital of the Highlands of Scotland, an area renowned for its mountains, lochs, castles, golf courses and of course the world-renowned and 'sometimes elusive' Loch Ness Monster.
The City of Inverness has a population of about 55,000 and as the only place in the Highlands with a population of more than 10,000 people, enjoys the facilities of a much larger city.
The Highlands of Scotland has a total population of around 320,000 spread over an area the size of Belgium and with the lowest population density of anywhere in Europe. Just 4% of the population of Scotland live in the Scottish Highlands.
St Michael and All Angels is a lively and welcoming parish who uphold a traditional modern Scottish Anglo-Catholic style of worship in all its liturgical richness. This is a tradition they strive to maintain, along with other Forward in Faith parishes throughout the British Isles and beyond who seek to hold firm to the traditional values of the universal church.The main architectural features of St Michael and All Angels are the work of the renowned church architect, Sir Ninian Comper, the son of a priest who served in the Diocese from 1853-57.
The parish is especially proud of their Comper stained glass windows of the Four Archangels, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel, and of the magnificent Gilded Tester depicting the Gifts of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost which is above the high altar. And there is an unusual lofty oak font cover, one of the few 'wooden' examples of the work of Sir Ninian Comper.
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