The Bells of St. Paul's

I realized I’ve haven’t written in a few days; London has been nonstop action.  I will do a few entries to break up all we have done instead of just one extremely long post.

Sunday:

We woke up and went to church at St. Paul’s Cathedral.  If you have ever seen Mary Poppins it is the church where the bird lady sits.  It is also where Princess Diana married Prince Charles.  The church is absolutely beautiful.  There is a large dome at the top, which makes for amazing acoustics.  Upon arrival, I felt like I was in Mary Poppins (in case you didn’t know, I love Mary.)  There were pigeons all around the front and lovely bells chimed signaling us that church was about to begin. 

The service was very high church, more so than the Anglican Church I attend in Wheaton.   The Bishop of London spoke and delivered a great sermon on faith and doubt.  One thing he said that struck me was that “faith without doubt is infantile, because we then think that God wouldn’t let us suffer.  Doubt sends us back to Jesus.”  Amen.  I received communion from the Bishop, which was exciting.  The best part of the service was the choir.  I honestly think heaven will sound like the St. Paul’s chair.  Their “alleluias” echoed all around us as they praised God.  It was breathtaking.

            Afterwards we ate in the crypt of the church, which is where Lord Nelson is buried.  In typical English fashion it was raining before lunch, but then the skies cleared for Dr. Ryken’s literary walk.  The walk mostly centered on Dickens’ sites from Great Expectations which is Dr. Ryken’s favorite Dickens’ novel.  He has you read it in both 216 and his Romantics class.  On a side note, I did see St. Bartholomew’s hospital, which if you are a Sherlock fan, you know that figures importantly in the show.  We ended the walk in on old Victorian garden next to a dissident church.  Dr. Ryken also wanted to impress on us that not all of England is Anglican, despite the prominence of the Anglican Church. 

            Then, we went to the London Museum and saw the old Roman walls that survived the fire.  Ryken lamented that we would not be able to see the nearby St. Giles Church where Milton is buried because the church would be mostly closed as service was over.  We decided to check the church anyways, and as luck would have it, the doors were open because of a used book sale.  A double-win!  It was a beautiful church full of wooden beams, stained glass, and John Milton statues (Ryken loves Milton. A lot.)   We then did a quick trip through the London Museum, which was interesting. They had recreated a street to look as it would during Victorian times.  Then four of us ventured off and saw the Churchill War Rooms/Museum.  These are the underground war rooms that Churchill and his employees stayed in during WWII to survive the bombing.  They are preserved to look as they did during the war.  It was fascinating.  It is one of my favorite museums in London, and I highly recommend it to all. 

            To top the night off, we went to a Pub and had fish and chips.  I generally avoid fish, but I decided to try it.  It was good and did not taste fishy at all because it is fried, and I squeezed lemon on top and dipped it in tartar sauce.  We then rode the London Eye! It was a beautiful night and we could see for miles around at the top. We could even pick out Buckingham Palace!  From the top, I realized London is extremely green for such a big city, mostly because of the several parks.  It is indeed a “green world”.