London -- Week 4 (the museums)

This was a week of museums - the British Museum, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.  The weather was a bit cold and rainy, so we chose indoor adventures (ie introduce your toddlers to the world's ancient civilizations in less than a day!).  We also spent time in Hyde Park and Kew Gardens, and we're tired!  We need to balance a bit better the desire to take in as much as we can, with the need to rest.  Emma informed us one evening: "I don't like walking and walking and walking!"

I found the Assyrian section of the British museum particularly meaningful.  I think I'd never realized, or considered before, what powerful adversaries Israel was up against.  All these thousands of years later, I found their sculptures and carvings of their gods and their battles intimidating - imagine what it must have been like then - all that vast technology and military power versus little Israel, commanded by God not to have horses, but to rely on YHWH.  No wonder Israel's kings were so often fickle and tempted to make alliances with evil - their enemies were mighty! 

There was also a section of artifacts from Ninevah - carvings depicting various victories in gruesome detail.  It was no small exageration in Jonah to call it a wicked city.  I was struck anew by how Jonah is a truly outrageous story of God's mercy.

It is interesting (and a bit challenging) visiting musuems with small children.  I found that I saw things very differently, walking around, trying to engage Emma in what we were seeing.  She and Brianna were both tickled to recognize cats in the Egypt section at the British Museum, for example.  And that night our Bible story was the Exodus and Emma recognized the chariots and horses of the Egyptians in her book as being like all the ones we'd seen in the museum that day.  So fascinating to watch her making connections.

On Sunday we worshipped with All Souls Church, where John Stott preached for many years.  The service was very different from any of the others we've attended - more contemporary and in many ways more familiar.  We are looking forward to meeting with leaders from All Souls and Southwark Cathedral later this week.

I've begun reading No god but God:  the Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan.  I know very little about Islam and I'm finding it very helpful and engaging.  We see Muslims everywhere we go here, and I'm eager to learn more.  I've also continued to read The Celtic Way of Prayer by Esther De Waal, tonight a section on the presence of God, noticing how often Celtic prayers use the words encircle, encompass, uphold and surround and how Celtic Christians seemed to have a sense of God's presence with them in the everyday tasks and challenges of life.  We've been praying for you all this week, especially for Harry and his family, that you might feel God's love encircling and upholding you.

Pastor Elizabeth

p.s. The shoes - we spent a bit of time in various stores this week finding replacement shoes for Brianna, settling on a pair we thought would be harder for her to take off - and it took her less than an hour for them to start dropping again . . .

Week 3--London (and sidetrips)

This past week we've visited a variety of sites all related to England's spiritual heritage.

Perhaps the oldest of all, we visited the ancient site of Stonehenge.  It felt like there was a spiritual presence about the place, and it was sobering to wonder about the folks who had assembled the stones and who or what exactly they were worshipping.  Paul, in Romans, speaks of each of us having a sense of God ingrained in us, and we couldn't help thinking about this. There were also sheep near by, and Brianna was very taken with them, toddling around saying, 'baa, baa . . .' 

We also spent some time in Bath, visiting the ruins of the old Roman baths built around one of England's only hot springs.  Connected with the baths were ruins of the Roman temple to Minerva, the goddess to whom they attributed the hot waters.  A striking reminder of our tendency to make gods out of things we don't understand.

We also visited the small village of Lacock where they had a tithe barn from the 12th-century where farmers would bring in their tithe from their crops to give to the Abbey that was once there.  It made the history of the many monasteries, convents, and abbeys that once covered the countryside seem much more real.

And just today, we took a "pilgrimage" to Oxford, and it was a real joy to see the places where several of our favorite authors regularly spent their time.  C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien, and Dorothy Sayers all had direct ties to the University.  Interestingly, Lewis was by far the most prominently remembered.
This past Sunday, we worshiped at Southwark Cathedral again.  We had an unscheduled Sunday, and we enjoyed it so much last week that we went back for Pentecost.  They celebrated the baptisms of three children, and we were moved by several aspects of the service.  In the Anglican church, they often have the font in the back of church as part of the entrance into the worship space.  So when they came to the baptism, everyone moved to the back of the sanctuary.  When they were done, they wrapped each child in a beautiful blanket and spoke the words, "You have been clothed with Christ."

In the afternoon, we went to evensong at St Paul's Cathedral, another impressive worship space.  The girls were restless this time, however, and we needed to sneak out the side halfway through the service.

We have been blessed with wonderful weather this past week--very little rain and temperatures reaching the mid and upper 70's.

Jay's been reading The Reason for God by Tim Keller--a modern day apology for the Christian faith.  Though a bit of an intellectual approach to faith, it does an excellent job of addressing many modern-day dismissals of the Christian faith (like "It's not just arrogant but downright dangerous to think your religion is right and try to convert others to it" or "I can't believe in a God who allows such suffering...")

Peace to you all,
Jay and Elizabeth

Misadventures of the week:  (1) Jay was torn between leaving our two bags of luggage on the Tube or following the rest of the family as Elizabeth (and the girls) confidently started exiting the train a station early.  Thankfully, they heard the desperate cries of, "Elizabeth!  Elizabeth!" just in time and pushed their way back on the train. (2) We lost one of Brianna's shoes.  She's been entertaining herself by taking them off as she's in the stroller.  So far, we'd always been able to corral them just in time.  This time, however, after placing it under the stroller for safe keeping after she had taken it off, we came back home to our apartment only to discover it missing.  So now we're in search of shoes with a buckle.

Week 2 in London--Still going strong?

Surreal moment of the week:  I found myself last Thursday, May 13, standing under the William Shakespeare memorial statue in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, rocking Brianna in my arms, listening to the Men and Boys Choir during an Ascension Day service where Desmund Tutu was preaching.  We had toured Westminster Abbey the day before and saw a flyer advertising the service.  We weren't sure if we could get in, or if the children would be welcome, but when we arrived about fifteen minutes before the service, we were warmly greeted and ushered in to a seat not far from the front.  It was an incredibly beautiful service--certainly the most remarkable Ascension Day service I've ever been a part of (it's hard to match the setting).  The main challenge was simply that a third of the people were there to worship, a third to see the Abbey for free, and a third just to hear the choir or Desmund Tutu.  Still, there were plenty of empty seats, and this suprised us since both Elizabeth and I remember having to wait for quite some time to hear Desmund Tutu when he came to the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids.

Another highlight of the week was worshiping on Sunday morning at Southwark Cathedral (pictured above).  Of the churches we hope to visit, we knew the least about this one, and we were truly blessed by our visit.  There was a clear sense of the Spirit at work.  The children were warmly embraced and the service was alive and uplifting.  There were many more younger families than we had seen at the other churches, and many more children as well.

We've somehow managed to do quite the tour of London's city parks so far.  The girls are enjoying the variety of play equipment, and it gives us a good opportunity to interact a bit with regular Londoners. 

The rain has held off for the most part, it's finally starting to warm up a bit, and the ash clouds are affecting everybody else's travels but ours so far.  The only hiccup is that Emma came down sick last night, so we're trying to wait that out.

I just finished a book called Introducing the Missional Church: What It Is, Why It Matters, How to Become One by Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren.  One of the central ideas of the book is that the church in general has lost sight of it's true mission of transforming this world and instead has embraced a mission of attracting people to church.  This has resulted in impressive programs and slick marketing campaigns, but has mainly succeeded in simply shuffling believers from one church to another while ignoring the changing realities in the world around us.  Mission, instead, is not so much getting people into the church but transforming the world for good.  We now have some catching up to do to in order to be able to engage culture where it is truly at today and then to be a force of good in God's world. 

A helpful lesson was the reminder that the Spirit of God is indeed at work in the people of the church if we have the patience to see it.  Another was the need to be willing to take risks and even be willing to fail--the church, after all, as God created it, is made up of ordinary people and everything doesn't need to be perfect all the time.

Blessings,
Pastor Jay

London--Week 1 (We made it!)

Thanks to all who have been praying for us, especially those prayers for cheerful daughters.  We were amazed when the girls woke up happy after 3 short hours of uncomfortable sleep on the plane and continued to be in good spirits most of the day.  We've all had our moments, but are getting over jet lag and grateful to be here.

We've been struck these first few days by the diversity surrounding us, both ethnically and ecologically (palm trees seem to thrive in London!).  Our current lodging is in the East End (near Roman Road, for those familiar with the city) in what seems to be a largely Muslim community.  Well over half the women and girls we see coming and going on the street are wearing hijabs, and some have their faces entirely covered.  I keep wondering what I will say when Emma asks about it, but so far she doesn't seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary.  There is something very elegant about the women's modesty.

On Sunday we worshipped at St.James Picadilly Church, which had been recommended to us by friends who liked their creative interpretations of the liturgy.  We were tickled by the diagrams on the church's website describing how communion was 'meant' to procede, appreciating the realism of that phrase.  We were welcomed warmly and the congregation there sends greetings to Boston Square.  They began communion by inviting everyone forward to make a circle several rows deep around the altar for the whole communion service, and it was interesting to see  the girls watching the priests' gestures intently.  It was a gift to be able to receive communion and to have the girls' blessed by the priest, and yet we were all rather homesick for Boston Square.

One of the books I've started reading is "The Celtic Way of Prayer" by Esther DeWaal and in it she highlights the theme of journey within the Celtic Christian tradition, and how being at home within ourselves frees us to journey outwardly.  Both fitting themes for us on what Emma calls 'our big trip' - she's been asking a lot about home these first few days and we've been trying to both put her at ease and explain that we won't be home in Michigan for quite awhile yet, but we'll all be together as we explore.

peace,
Pastor Elizabeth

Misadventures of the Week:  (1) Jay fried his electric razor the first time using it...so who knows how long his beard will be when we get home?  (2) We had heard of a special puppet show celebration happening on the grounds outside St Paul's Church...only Jay heard "St. Paul's Cathedral" and we ended up in the wrong place entirely.  After many additional attempts, we did indeed find the puppet show.