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| Katie H., Noah, Sierra, and me @ Salt & Pepper Cafe |
This summer, I had the privilege of spending a month
in England with a group of 15 students from Oklahoma Baptist University. Dr. Lindsey Panxhi (an English faculty
colleague) and myself, along with our respective spouses, conducted a
faculty-led Study Abroad that spent four weeks on the ground in London teaching
OBU courses to OBU students while being immersed in the culture and history of
Great Britain. These are our stories!
Sunday, July 22,
2018 – St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Holy Trinity Brompton, St. Paul’s
Cathedral
Our first Sunday in Britain was an adventurous
and
enjoyable one! We had decided to go out
for a team breakfast, and found a delightful neighborhood café – Salt &
Pepper Café. We left Pickwick shortly
after 8, and got to the café in time for our whole group to be seated in five
separate tables. The breakfast fare was
very delicious – everyone enjoyed it. We
were done earlier than anticipated, so we decided that instead of taking the
tube to church, we would walk.
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| Arsid, Sydney, Anna, Emma @ Salt & Pepper Cafe |
In the end, our 40-minute walk, which started about
10:15, turned into a full 75-minute walk!
I led the group, and we were well on our way when one of the twins
(Katie, I think), suggested that Trafalgar Square was “just two blocks that
way.” We detoured to try to get to
Trafalgar, an iconic location, but never did find it. Instead, we found ourselves in just-as-iconic
St. James Park – an expansive public garden with ponds, swans, geese, and (of
course) beautiful trees and flowers. The
Brits really do gardens well – so colorful and diverse, and there are so many
public gardens and squares. It’s really
impressive to me that in such a populous and crowded city, where property is so
valuable, nonetheless the city has prioritized maintaining free public parks
and gardens. And they are well-used and
heavily-visited!
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| My yummy breakfast omelette! |
I’ve had most of my Ethics classes, and all of our
Colloquium classes, meet outside in one of the two public squares within a
block of Pickwick. There has always been
a solid number of locals frequenting the park while we’ve been there. Nice to see!
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| Pond @ St. James Park |
Anyway – St. James Park was lovely, and somewhat
unexpectedly deposited us at the front gate of Buckingham Palace, right before changing of the guard (at
11:00). So, we got to see the procession
to Changing of the Guard, though not the ceremony itself. Then we resumed our (now-hurried) trek to
Holy Trinity Brompton, the Anglican parish church that is home to the Alpha
Course. By 11, it was already over 80
degree (F) outside, and our group was getting hot, tired, and thirsty.
Finally we arrived at Holy Trinity Brompton. Thankfully, they had pitchers and glasses of
cold water – a very welcome sight for our weary group! Unfortunately, the church was packed by the
time we
arrived, shortly after the start of the 11:30 service. So we had to sit in the balcony on benches
with no back rests. Not very
comfortable, and very warm.
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| Gorgeous Gardens in St. James Park |
But worship (and faith in general) is not about our
personal comfort, but about glorifying the Lord. And God was certainly glorified through the
service there! I was absolutely blown
away by a few things.
First, this historic old Anglican church building was
absolutely bursting at the seams. I did
a rough head count calculation, and figured there were 900-1000 people
there. They have two morning services,
and three additional satellite campuses – so HTB is a thriving spiritual
community. In a very post-Christian,
heavily-secularized society like contemporary England, that spiritual life was
tremendously encouraging.
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| Birds & Bees @ St. James Park |
Second, the church was very diverse in age and
ethnicity. I’d guess that the
congregation was about 40% black, 40% white, and 20% others (Asian, etc.). The worship team represented that diversity
well. Again, that seems to me a positive
indication for the potential future of British Christianity.
The service itself was uplifting. Heartfelt contemporary worship, and a
stirring sermon about pouring oneself out for God and others in pursuit of a
“more” life. The preacher (can’t remember
his name) had a phrase about Jesus-followers comprising a “strange kingdom” – a
wonderful turn of phrase.
I was inspired and moved by the entire worship
experience at Holy Trinity Brompton, and glad we trekked there.
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| Stumbling across Buckingham Palace Gardens |
After church, we took the Tube back to Pickwick for a
late lunch. The 11:30 service ended at
1:15, it was 1:45 or so when we got back.
After cleaning up lunch, we headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral for a 3:15
Evensong service. St. Paul’s is an
historic cathedral not far from us, near the financial heart of London. The church is gorgeous – including the
stained glass and sculpting. The
Evensong service was beautiful – high Anglican liturgy at its finest. But in comparison to the morning at HTB, it
felt somewhat artificial. There were more
tourists than parishioners in attendance.
I long to see these big beautiful cathedrals filled with authentic God-worshipers! The short sermon at St. Paul’s was very tepid
– neither illuminating nor inspirational.
It was, I thought, very sad that the best things about the service were
(1) the beauty of the building, and (2) the musical quality of the choir. Quite a contrast from the morning service at
Holy Trinity Brompton!  |
| St. Paul's Cathedral through the alley |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
After Evensong, we set the students loose until a late
supper. Vanessa was exhausted and
overheated, so we just took the Tube straight home. After a short nap we got supper ready. After supper, we FaceTimed with Mataeo and
Keilani, who are not both at the Bandy’s.
It was good to chat with them! I
miss them a lot, increasingly each day.
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| Theatre District - Harry Potter showing |
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| Pickwick Hall's backyard |
Early to be again – the heat has been getting to
us. England has had near-record heat the
whole time we’ve been here. Over 80
degrees every day thus far. There is no
A/C at Pickwick, and very little air circulation, so the rooms get quite toasty. Vanessa and I (and the Panxhi’s) are
thankfully in the basement, which is a good bit cooler. Anyway, the heat keeps climbing, and now it’s
not cooling off as much at night. Last
night it only dropped to 65 degrees. The
downside to being in the basement … our windows face the street. We need to keep them open to maintain
relative coolness – but that subjects us to lots of night-time noise and (far worse) the cigarette fumes from
the next-door hotel workers’ smoke breaks.
Trade-offs! All in all, a good
and worshipful day.
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