A couple of weeks back we did a walking tour of Oxford with a visiting lecturer. It was a perfectly beautiful winter’s day, but even in the last few weeks the the trees have buds and spring bulbs are breaking through the ground! Come on Spring.
It’s one thing to learn about church history in a class room, and quite another to visit the very locations where significant moments took place. The cross in the road marks the spot where Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer were burnt for their faith.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (written in prison)
Now, I’m not in prison, but I am separated from those I love and who are home for me by half a world. It presents like an uneasiness just beyond recognition - it’s somewhere sliding in the shadows. Does it pass or just come and go without my control?
Helen and I visited St Michael at the North Gate a few Sunday’s back as part of our current church and history module. It was interesting to visit a different church tradition and feel what it’s like for a worship experience to be so foreign. I didn’t know how to kneel on the pews, whether it was okay for us to take communion, or which part of the liturgy we were following.
However, Rev. Bob and the congregation were very welcoming, led us through the service and happily chatted to us afterwards over tea and cake. St Michael’s is the oldest building in Oxford and the history was difficult to fathom. We were privileged to witness some adult baptisms, using a font from the 14th century. WHAT!
I was most struck by the sense of reverence and worship that permeated the whole service, and beauty too. Not a word was wasted.
On a slightly different note, I came across a squirrel fight on the way home - they were running after each other at the top of this tree. It brought back memories of the haunting Beatrix Potter book ‘The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes’ which I always found particularly eerie, especially the birds’ call…who’s-been-digging-up my-nuts? *shudder*.
So... do we actually have any books round here that support penal substitution?
The Bible! Booyah.
HA!
We finally got round to visiting The Ashmolean last weekend with David and Jem. After a couple of weeks of church history lectures, the exhibitions came to life in a new way. Also, they had a special exhibition dedicated to Japanese Ghost stories which was incredible.
Went to Puccino’s cafe afterwards for treats and chats. Yum.
Another assignment down! They are coming thick and fast this term, looking back it’s going to be easy to tell when deadlines were by my lack of posts…
A few thursdays ago we went ice-skating with a small crew from college and it was so much fun. Earlier that evening we also attended a small lecture at Christ Church College here in Oxford by Pete Ward (Celebrity Culture - God’s Behaving Badly) which was interesting, but perhaps the highlight was walking through a noisy city centre at night, then entering Christ Church College, which was like another world. It was so quiet within the courtyard and all I could hear was the sound of the fountain in the middle of the perfectly manicured grass. I felt immediately more intelligent, and little Harry Potter.
Then we went ice-skating. I fell over. Kim attempted some kind of catapult manoeuvre on me which went horribly wrong, but nothing broken, no bruises! I missed his back slide on the ice, apparently it was epic. Will definitely go again!
