Pics from London

My first stop after the train station was to jump on the Tube (the name of the subway in London) and head out to Westminster Abbey. I wanted to walk around there first to see if they had an Saturday evening service before heading to Buckingham palace for the changing of the guard ceremony. That's the first picture (top) of my mug with the church in the background. Right around the corner and visible from the church grounds is the clock tower, Big Ben next to the parliament buildings (2nd picture).

After seeing Big Ben, I went towards Buckingham Palace. I cut through St James Park which was blooming with flowers and very beautiful. Coming up on the palace, one sees the Victoria Memorial commemorating Queen Victoria (third picture). I arrived an hour before the ceremony and already the places in front of the iron bar fence were taken. So my pictures are just so-so becaue I had to take them through the bars (fourth picture). The ceremony actually lasted for over an hour complete with two military bands playing music from the musical "Mama Mia" and some other easy listening songs from the 70s. Whatever happened to "God Save the Queen"?

After the ceremony I bolted to the Tube and went to the British Museum (bottom picture). I spent only a few minutes there (it was free!) and looked at some of the exhibits from ancient Greece. Then I walked over to the British Library and perused two of the oldest complete copies of the Bible that exist: Codex Sinaiticus (from the 350s AD) and Codex Alexandrinus (from the 5th century). They were both open to the last chapter of the Gospel of John and I'm proud to say that I could even read some of the Greek. To be able to read a copy of the Scriptures that were more than 1600 years old was incredible - our faith has a long, reliable history.

After the British Library I went back to Westminster Abbey, the church where kings and queens are crowned, and arrived just in time to get in for the Evensong Saturday service (which as free and not 15 pounds that you pay if you go to see visit the museum on your own). It was wonderful with the glorious ornate ceiling and monuments everywhere to famous people buried somewhere underneath, among them Winston Churchill but the one who grabbed my attention was that of the great English statesman and Christian activist, William Wilberforce. Unfortunately, half way through the service, one of the older choir members had a medical emergency that was so serious that they stopped the service in order for the paramedics and ambulance to treat and take them to the hospital. One interesting note, the service was full of people like me who did not want to pay the 15 pound entrance fee, and so there were people from all over the world: noticeably from the Middle East, India, China and Japan. They were clueless about the liturgy (I am in good practice going to the chapel service at the Anglican college I am at daily). During the times for silent pray I asked the Lord to speak to them, to reveal His Son to them, that this service would be a step in their pilgrimage toward believing in Him. With the unplanned medical emergency of that poor person, I'm sure I was not the only one thinking about mortality and the hereafter.