A Taste of London

Big Ben and little Ben

After landing in Heathrow, spending two hours in the immigration line, buying Oyster cards, taking the Tube, walking around aimlessly, and then taking a taxi, we finally arrived at the seminary.  A few noteworthy things happened in our first couple of weeks in London.  One was the ordination of a new auxillary bishop for the diocese of Westminster.  This was my first trip to Westminster Cathedral, and my first episcopal ordination.  I had never seen so many bishops in one place in my life, and the Cathedral boys choir was quite good.  And don't ask how it happened, but I somehow ended up ministering the cup to a bunch of deacons at that Mass (I don't think anyone intended liturgical inpropriety).  That was on Wednesday.  On Sunday the 18th we would return to the cathedral to have a talk for the seminarians follow by a Mass of thanksgiving to mark the one year anniversary of Pope Benedict's visit to the UK.  It seems like the Pope's visit was quite a big deal to this country, at least to the Catholics here.

Jumping back a day, Saturday was my first real free day in London.  I took the opportunity to get a better feel for the city by going downtown.  Taking advice to get off the bus when we saw Big Ben, KS and I first got a look at Westminster Abbey and the Parliment building.  I must say that I was rather more impressed by Parliment, though both appear to be in a Gothic style of architecture.  I imagine I prefer Parliment in part just because it's a much larger building.  We crossed the river (Thames, pronounced 'temz') to get a better look at the London Eye, and then crossed back and walked through St. James Park toward Buckingham Palace.  We saw the Palace, Hyde Park, and then went back towards the river, ending in Trafalgar square.  I was vaguely hoping to find the Notre Dame London building, but since we didn't know where that was, we got on the bus to get back.  It was a good thing too, because, although it had been sunny shortly before, it started to downpour just as we got on the bus.  That evening, I had a long conversation with a couple of the guys at dinner about the rules of cricket, and I'm excited to get the chance to see a match.  After dinner, we (the Americans) watched part of the Notre Dame v. MSU football game, although the English seminarians did not seem particularly interested in the game.



This past Friday (the 23rd), KS, JD, and I went out to Ealing where we had lunch with one of the guys who lives out there and visited his house.  That was my first time out of central London since first arriving, and it just felt more spacious and breathed a little bit easier.  It's hard to describe what exactly caused the feeling, but it came instantly after getting out of the Tube stop.  It was here that I saw my first English common, Ealing Common, though I didn't walk through it.

The rest of my time during these two weeks was spend mainly in pastoral ministry workshops, or, occasionally, sampling English ales.