Hits: 1868

stclares logo NEWrgb

Perhaps you've seen our new parish logo and wonder what it represents. Here's an explanation... For many years, the parish has simply used an image of the church as a ‘logo’. Now that the appearance of the church is so dramatically different, it seemed a good idea to develop a new logo. It’s been designed by graphic designer Rob Hotchkiss, who does a lot of work for local parishes and for the diocese.

The logo combines two images: first, St Clare herself: her face represented by the centre circle, her veil by the black triangles pointing downwards, her habit by the brown areas underneath her face, and her hands joined in prayer, holding a cross. The upper part, in yellow, could be seen to represent her halo.

The second image is that of a monstrance containing the Eucharist. Here, the centre circle represents the Host, and the triangles in all directions represent the monstrance itself. St Clare is very often depicted holding the monstrance, as she had enormous love for the Eucharist and always turned to Our Lord’s real presence in times of great need. She reminds us of the importance of praying before the Blessed Sacrament.

Earlier this week children in the junior classes at school got the chance to talk about the new logo and what it represented for them. All the classes were able to spot St Clare and the monstrance, and some of the children came up with other interpretations too: one suggested that the yellow at the top could represent heaven, and the brown below the earth (in this interpretation, we can see Christ as the Host, the One who unites heaven and earth, because He is truly God and truly human); another child saw the black circle around the centre as an image of God's love for us: eternal, with no beginning and no end. It was fascinating to see how the children were able to interpret the logo and come up with their own ideas.

Below is a visual explanation of the main symbolism of the logo:

Logo explanation