CHURCHES are synonymous with introspection. However, worshippers at St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow will be able to take a particularly long, hard look at themselves when they next attend a service.
More than 20 have been immortalised in stone as gargoyles at the Scottish Episcopal Church which is in the final stages of a 20-year, (pounds) 3.5m restoration project.
Staff at the cathedral on Great Western Road decided to mark the completion of the work by commissioning portraits of people who have been involved in the fundraising, planning, and construction.
Gargoyles are most associated with devilish figures which peer down from the spires of ancient cathedrals. Early cathedrals were also designed to be sermons in stone which could be read by an illiterate population. Some gargoyles fulfil this purpose by illustrating Bible stories, from Eve's first reach for the apple to frightening images of eternal damnation.
But not all gargoyles were for religious instruction. Some were simply grotesque. One reason for this in medieval times was the belief that frightening figures could scare away evil spirits.
The new Glaswegian gargoyles, however, are much more kindly creatures.
They represent builders, electricians and stonemasons who worked on the restoration, as well as members of the congregation and clergy.
Among those set in stone is the Very Rev Griff Dines, provost of St Mary's, and the Right Rev Idris Jones, Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway, who said: ''The stonemasons have been very generous - I look like a cheerful cherub.
''It's nice to know that I'll always be up there, keeping an eye on the city of Glasgow.''
Another gargoyle is modelled on Nessie Wilkie, an 82-year-old elder at the nearby Church of Scotland's Lansdowne Parish Church who died before the carving was complete.
She was picked for her dedication - and as a way of thanking her church, which took in the cathedral's congregation during the restoration work.
Her daughter, Joan Lindsey, said: ''She was thrilled that she was going to become a gargoyle. It really cheered her up.''
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