Spring Break Series II: London and the Established Church

There is more to London than it's fantastic art scene. And during spring break I'd like to think I experienced the city's other virtues.

Yes indeed, for several days it was Church-O-Rama for us all.

-First Stop: Westminster Abbey: The Abbey was something of a marvel for me. Never before had I seen such a profoundly constructed devotion to the life and cultivation of church life and death. The Abbey is home to a dizzying collection of burial sites. In "Poet's Corner" alone the following masters of verse have been laid to rest:

• Dame Peggy Ashcroft
• Robert Adam
• Robert Browning
• William Camden
• Thomas Campbell
• Geoffrey Chaucer
• William Congreve
• Abraham Cowley
• William Davenant
• John Denham
• Charles Dickens
• John Dryden
• Adam Fox
• David Garrick
• John Gay
• George Frederick Handel
• Thomas Hardy
• Sir Henry Irving
• Dr. Samuel Johnson
• Rudyard Kipling
• Thomas Macaulay
• John Masefield
• Lord Laurence Olivier
• Thomas Parr
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan
• Edmund Spenser
• Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson

The Abbey is also the traditional burial site of English monarchs including:

• Henry V of England and his wife Catherine of Valois.

As is typical of most abbey's and cathedral's here in the UK, Westminster feels as though it now only fills a perfunctory role as a parish hub. I attended two Evensong services that happened to fall before lectures given by the Archbishop. They were well attended, yet only so (in my estimation) because of his presence. The plague of the "compulsory role" seems to be something of a big problem for most of the large former hubs of the Anglican Church here in the UK.


Don't believe me? Consider what the venerable Cambridge Philosopher Simon Blackburn has stated: "We are, after all, a pragmatic nation, and we buried the authority of God a long time ago and do not seem to miss it too much. But we feel little need to become extremists. Why would we want to choose between Marx and the Pope when we have the Church of England to relax in?" I sure hope this changes in the future. But, my hopes are not set high.


-Second Stop: St. Paul's Cathedral: A departure from Westminster and the Gothic tradition, St. Paul's is a decidedly different experience. St. Paul's feels (more than any of the Cathedrals I've visited--The Minster included) most like a tourist destination. The Cathedral is complete with a tourist shop paid admission to its claustrophobic yet fascinating rotunda and tower and wide eyed American's eager to discover the mystic behind where Princess Diana was wed. Don't get me wrong. It's a pretty impressive place. I just didn't get the feel that much else was happening there than the lunch rush at the Cathedrals lower level Café.

The bottom right Polaroid (above) is a shot of St Paul's exterior.

Sunday's post will cover the enchanting qualities of Paris.

Be well.

JS