Churches and services in England at Christmas --- 2013

Dear family and friends,

This blog entry features photos from churches or church-related events which I have visited or taken part in here in England with my friend Debbie, and once also with Debbie's husband and my friend Tim, from Sunday to Sunday, December 15th to the 22nd, 2013, although I am going to work backwards chronologically.  Debbie gave me permission to share some of her photos too, and I've given her credit below for the ones which are hers.

The picture above is of Canterbury Cathedral, where Deb, Tim, and I attended the 11:00 Sung Eucharist service this past Sunday, the 22nd. Directly below is a picture of Deb and Tim outside the cathedral, and a shot that did not come out very well of part of the nativity scene.  I was moved by the service, including the sermon, the chorale music, and especially the Eucharist. The one surprising event was at the end, when the priest very slightly, and without any real damage, singed the hairs on his forehead, when he lent down to talk to the children after he had lit the fourth Advent candle.  He made light of it (pun intended!), but it was a scary moment because we could not quite tell what was happening.

Last Thursday, the 19th, Deb and I were in London for the afternoon to meet up with and have lunch with a friend of mine from my theological network, which we very much enjoyed.  Deb and I also attended the 5:00 PM Evensong Service at Westminster Abbey, and below is a photo she took.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but the abbey was stately and beautiful, and we loved the service, for which a chorus of young boys and a few men sang.

Next is a picture Debbie took of Bath Abbey, taken from the Roman Baths on Monday, the 16th.  We did not tour the abbey, but I liked this photo.

And below are three photos from the two events Debbie and I attended in Exeter beginning late in the afternoon on Sunday, the 15th, my last Sunday in Exeter.  The first two are from the Exeter Nativity Processional, which began down the main street of the city (called the High Street), and ended inside the Cathedral.  I took the photo of Mary, Joseph, and the donkey, with city folks following in procession, and Deb took the photo of one of the two llamas, which were dressed to look like camels.  This photo was taken inside the Cathedral.  The third and last photo is of two Christingles, which Deb and I brought home from the service that we went on to attend that same evening, at the United Reformed Church I attended while I was in Exeter.  We loved that service, which was filled with light and warmth.

I wish you all a blessed and happy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  May the true Light of the World, which came into the world as a tiny baby, shine on us and on all people.

Love to all,
Jane

Three months in Exeter come to a close

Today, Friday, December 13, is the end of my three-month residency at the University of Exeter.  I arrived in the city of Exeter exactly three months ago, on Friday, September 13, after my wonderful friend Debbie so gamely picked me up that morning from Heathrow Airport at a horribly early hour and drove me to Exeter. Debbie stayed for that first weekend to help me get my flat set up, to make sure that I bought real food to eat at the grocery store, and to help me navigate the area.  If Debbie had not done that, I would never be where I am today:  a very happy person, ending an extremely rich time at the University of Exeter and in the city of Exeter.

I also was thrilled that Debbie and her husband Tim came to visit me for a week, and that Debbie came back again with our friend Beth, when Beth was visiting from North Carolina. Debbie, Tim, Beth, and I go back a few decades now (not to admit our ages), and it was wonderful for us to see each other.

Debbie is arriving tomorrow to spend a couple of days with me and help me pack up, and we are going to do some final site-seeing, including taking a quick trip by train to Bath. Then on Tuesday we will fill up her car with my stuff and head to Kent, where I will spend Christmas with Debbie and Tim, something I can hardly wait to do.

The photo above shows the Amory Building at the University of Exeter.  This building houses several departments, including the Theology Department, and so I spent quite a bit of time there, although many of the lectures and classes I sat in on were held in other buildings. There was no way for me to capture this on my camera, but the university is built on a very steep hill.  Many of the buildings are built into the hill, so you can enter on the ground floor in the front, and, in the case of Amory, walk out the back door on the fourth floor (using American floor numbering), or, in the case of another building I was in, walk out the back door on the seventh floor!   I will not miss all the hills and steps, but I sure got a lot of exercise, and the Kingswood hill and hills at Putnam Park will seem like nothing to me when I get back home!

Today I assisted Morwenna with the three final seminars for her first year undergraduate Patristics course.  We didn't end until 5:00 PM, so we went up to the very end of the term.  I have deeply appreciated being able to participate with Morwenna and her students, and I am grateful to have been given so many opportunities to learn about teaching theology.

I said good-bye all week to folks, including my fellow PhD students, professors, undergrads, staff, people at church, people at my favorite restaurant, etc.  And I walked around on a few different days just to say good-bye to places or buildings where I've been.  So, it's all wrapped up now, and I can thank God, as well as all of you who have journeyed with me as my friends, for all that has transpired.

Thank you for your friendship, interest, and support.  I wish you a blessed rest of Advent and Christmas season.  And I am posting below my two favorite photos from the time I was here.

Blessings to all,
Exeter Jane

Tiny creches or nativity scenes on my kitchen mantel in Exeter

Dear family and friends,

The purpose of this blog entry is to share three photos with you. The first one is above, and the other two are at the bottom of this posting.

I wanted to do a few religious decorations for Advent and Christmas, but I can't take things home.  A few weeks ago, I bought six African candles from the Fair Trade booth at the Exeter Cathedral (the booth at which I was working, as a visitor!).  Then I mentioned to my landlady, who is a wonderful person and friend, that I wanted to put something religious on the mantel in the kitchen, in addition to the candles.  She scrummaged around in her Christmas boxes until she found the box which contained her collection of tiny nativity or creche scenes, which she has collected from Oxfam stores and various places. They are from different cultures, and they portray the holy family in different ways, and they are very colorful as well as spiritually inspiring.  So I arranged my mantel over the kitchen table with the creches she let me borrow, and my six African candles.  I am not going to light the candles, as I am going to take them to Deb and Tim's house for Christmas.  So I am "double dipping" on the candles!

Some of you will know I also like penguins, so I begged my landlady to lend me two penguins and a huge pine cone, which I saw as she was looking for the creche sets.   You can see these on the kitchen table.  Of course, I didn't have to beg, as she was very gracious in lending these to me.

Do not be deceived by the bare kitchen table. This is where I work, because it's the only place in the "flat" with internet access, and the table is always full of my research books and papers.  But I cleaned it up so that I could take these photos for you.

Advent blessings to all,
Exeter Jane

Exeter updates for November

Dear friends and family,

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I did my last blog entry, but these have been very full weeks for me.  I've been doing all the things I came to the University of Exeter to do, and it's been a very rewarding and educational time for me.  In addition to continuing the research on my dissertation, I've designed and led five seminar sessions for two undergraduate courses, and I completed the six-week course for PhD students on how to teach undergrads.  I also graded my first batch of essays, and on Monday and Tuesday, I'll be sitting in my advisor's office having "office hours" for what she calls "essay surgeries," but which we would call "essay clinics."  Students can come by and ask me any questions about the final essays they are writing, or about their reading, and I'll be on my own with them. Wish me luck!

Also, I continue to attend weekly services at the United Reformed Church, and I will be co-leading worship with the minister next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent.  In addition to doing the sermon, I will be writing and leading all the prayers and two talks, one for lighting the first Advent candle, and one that is an "introduction" to the Bible readings and sermon.  The minister will lead the communion and offering.  The minister announced this morning that I'd be doing this with him next Sunday, and a few folks asked me about it during the coffee hour, which was nice.

A few Sundays ago, I attended a worship service with my landlord at the huge Exeter Cathedral (which is Anglican), and she has invited me to go with her next Sunday evening for an Advent service, which I am looking forward to.

I did take a couple of hours off one afternoon early in November, and I roamed around the Northernhay Gardens in Exeter again.  This park includes several war memorials, a lot of flowers and trees, and significant remains of a Norman castle. Ironically, the sun was out that day, and some of the photos I took did not come out, because there was too much sun! That is so funny over here!  The pictures that I've attached at the top and bottom of this blog entry are all from the park.  Some of you may recognize the war memorial photo, as it's the one that I posted on Facebook for Veteran's Day or Armistice Day.  I have learned that Exeter is a very historic city, and there are sizable remains from Roman walls here too.  Before I leave Exeter, I am going to visit the museum here, which I have heard is excellent.

Blessings to all, especially to all of you Americans who will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week!

Jane

WW II History: Higher Barracks, Exeter, Devon, UK

Dear friends and family,

This week's blog entry is in honor of my friend Ray in Bethel, whom some of you know. Ray is 89 years old, and he and his son Bobby eat dinner at Plain Jane's regularly, and we are all part of the PJ's family.

During WW II, when Ray was only 19 --- so 70 years ago now --- he was stationed in Exeter in late 1943 and early 1944.  He was a medic, and he and his unit left Exeter and were deployed for the D Day invasion.  Over the past two years, Ray has brought many photos and war papers to show me at PJ's, and we've talked about his time in Exeter and his war experiences.  Just before I left to come to Exeter myself, he let me copy some official papers about what his battalion had done here, and that allowed me to do online research to figure out where the "Higher Barracks" of Exeter were.

Well, this is a bit of a surprise --- at least for me!  The former Higher Barracks of Exeter are practically in front of my house!  They were finally closed as a military place in the late 1990s, and the buildings were turned into private housing (attached houses, condos, etc.).  It took me 5 minutes to walk there, but only because I had to follow the roads.  If I had been a crow, I could have flown there in 30 seconds.  The northern end of the grounds, which are quite substantial, is nearly due east of my house, and just below the main southern perimeter road of the U. of Exeter. After I was done walking around and taking pictures, I took a "public footpath" that led me right to the perimeter road, precisely where lots of students always come pouring through a gate. I've always wondered what that gate and footpath led to!  And now, today, I know.

Also, given that we just had All Saints Day, I stood in front of the largest building, from the former barracks, and looked out over the quadrangle (or green), and I reflected on all the men and women who had been stationed there, including those like Ray who ended up being deployed for D Day.  And I said prayers for those who lived and came back home, like Ray, and those who did not.  I am happy to say that the sun was out most of the time, including during those moments, and it felt warm and bright standing there.  There is hope in All Saints Day, as I read just this morning!

Here's to Ray and to others who served.

Blessings to all,
Jane

Exeter updates

Dear family and friends,

I am sorry that it has been three weeks since my last blog entry, but these have been very rich weeks, and I am doing the things I came to Exeter to do.  Even so, I miss you all, and I am eager to get home to see you and talk to you again.  And there are some photos at the end, so do not give up!

First of all, I finished a huge chapter of my PhD dissertation, which I had been working on for months. This is my third huge chapter, and the first of two on St. Augustine, who is my "main man" so to speak, and this chapter represents a major milestone for me.  But it meant I had to be "heads down" on the final writing for a while, which is why I disappeared!

Next, I was very pleased to be gain admittance to the six-week course that teaches PhD students how to teach at the undergraduate level.  We've had two of the six sessions so far, and the course is very informative and practical, and I like the instructors and my fellow PhD students in the course.  This is a real opportunity for me, as I would not be able to get this training back home, and this is one of the benefits of being here in Exeter in-person.  In conjunction with this course, my PhD advisor agreed to give me a specific number of hours for leading seminar sessions for two of her courses, one of which is in my area of speciality. For that one, I'll be able to lead three identical seminar sessions on St. Augustine and the Trinity.  And for the other one, I'll be leading two identical seminar sessions on Martin Luther and two of his key writings, including his 95 Theses!  I am very excited about this, and I continue to be very impressed with the caliber of undergraduate students here in the theology department.

Now, on to the exciting things!  Debbie came back, bringing our friend Beth, who flew in from Raleigh, North Carolina. We've all known each other for over 34 years, from when we worked for IBM in Raleigh.  We had terrible weather, so I did not get many photos, but I wanted to share a few pictures with you from Lyme Regis. We went there last Sunday, because all three of us had read the historical fiction book Remarkable Creatures, about Mary Anning (and another woman), who discovered major fossils and some extinct species in the early 1800s.  We LOVED the museum there, which featured not only Mary Anning and the fossils, but also the many authors who had written books while living in Lyme Regis, or which were set in Lyme Regis. This includes Jane Austen, who set part of her book Persuasion there.  We also saw a church --- the one in the photo here --- which has been there for 900 years, and outside of which Mary Anning and her family are buried.  The cliffs in the far distance, in one of the photos, are where Mary Anning found the fossils. It's hard to imagine her climbing up there in long skirts and in the rain.

So, I have been in Exeter over six weeks now, and have just under seven weeks left in Exeter. Then I'll be with Debbie and Tim for two weeks in Kent, and I'll return home two days after Christmas.

Best wishes and blessings to you all,
Jane

South Devon and Cornwall sites with Bethel friends in mind

Dear family, friends, colleagues, and all,

This blog posting is about the wonderful site-seeing trip Debbie and Tim and I took on Friday, but it's not just about our journey, because I selected two of the four places we visited specifically because they mean something special to some of my Bethel friends.  So, as you read this blog entry, know that you were in my heart and mind as we journeyed.  I hope you enjoy the photos too!

We were delighted because the sun was out for much of the day.  This was especially true for our visits to Torquay and Brixham, two seaside towns in South Devon on the English Channel.

We started with Torquay, because a married couple from my church, who met during WW II, had told me that she had been stationed in Torquay for her duty (she was an Englishwoman).  We spent quite a bit of time walking around the marina, and I found it interesting to compare the nets and fish traps to what I see in New England.  We then walked a bit around other parts of the town, but it was too touristy for us.  I am sharing four photos here from Torquay.  One is of the old Post Office, which we hope was there during WW II.  Two others show a tribute to an American unit that took off from Torquay for the D-Day invasion.  I have another friend, someone from Plain Jane's Restaurant, who was stationed in Exeter in WW II until a few months before he, too, took part in D-Day, and I hope that he might like these photos too, although they are not about his unit.  The final photo in this grouping shows the English channel, with a few clouds and shades of light and darkness.

Next, we found our way to Brixham, which was a truly beautiful and colorful coastal town.  I am glad Tim was driving, as the roads were very narrow and winding, and I was getting queasy!  We had a lovely dinner / lunch at a seaside restaurant, and walked around and enjoyed the lovely weather.  Here a couple of photos.  The ship with the red and white stripes is one that Sir Francis Drake sailed on, with something like 60 other men. Hard to believe!

After that, we headed to the Dartmoor National Forest.  It rained during this part of our journey, but it was still interesting to see so much countryside set aside with very few people living on it. One of my friends lived on the edge of Dartmoor when she was young, and I took pictures of the small ponies to show her.  Some of the ponies walked closer to me, which helped, but they are small!

We thought we were heading back to Exeter after that, but we went in the wrong direction on the highway, and ended up in Cornwall. This turned out to be such a treat, as we found a city with the remains of a Norman castle built high, high, high up on a hill.  You can't tell from the photos here, but we had to walk up a very steep and long staircase just to get to the base of this part of the castle.  And then, once we were inside the round area, we had to walk up a very scary round inner staircase to get to the top. I am afraid of heights, but the views were beautiful, more so than I can show you in these photos. In the one photo that shows a huge slope, there were dozens of sheep, at the top and bottom of the hill, but they did not show up in the picture. And this castle had a latrine, and some of you know my interest in these details!

Finally, here's my favorite photo of Debbie and Tim from the day. This was taken in Torquay.

Best wishes and blessings to all,
Exeter Jane

Exeter update: teaching and church

Dear friends, family, colleagues, and all,

Last week was a very rich week, and there are interesting things to report!

The autumn term started here at the U. of Exeter, and I am sitting in on and providing teaching assistance for an entry level theology course that my PhD advisor is teaching. Each Thursday afternoon, all the students (over 50 of them!) come together in a small lecture hall to hear my advisor lecture and take part in group activities. Then each Friday, on a permanent basis, the students are divided into three groups, which meet separately for one hour to go into more depth on the assigned readings for the week. This entry level theology course is for first year undergrad students, freshmen as we would call them, and I was very, very impressed with their level of involvement, and with the questions they asked and answers they put forth.

I also met a couple of people last week, including another PhD student and a professor, who specialize in areas related to what I am working on, and I was very excited about these new connections.

Church on Sunday was also a highlight!  It was Harvest Sunday in the worship service, followed by the Harvest brunch.  I'll start backwards by talking about the brunch first!

I did bring food, some ginger and carrot cakes I bought at a local store that sources its products from local farmers and bakers, but I was afraid to stay for the brunch and be alone or unknown, because this was only my third Sunday at this church.  But a woman invited me to sit with her, and the group that formed at our table was quite interesting. The brunch was interesting too. They are very organized and orderly.  You have to wait to be invited to go up to the pot luck buffet table for the main dishes. Then, you have to wait again to be invited to go up to the dessert table --- and this was a very long wait, although I didn't want dessert.

Another of the treats at the Harvest Brunch was that they had a quintet playing the piano, french horn, clarinet, oboe, and flute.  They played some music at the beginning, before we ate, but I had no idea that they were going to perform a concert for us after we finished eating.  The concert was about a half-hour long, and included a combination of very beautiful and classical musical pieces about autumn or the seasons, one singing number, and several poetry readings.  I have never been to something like this at a church, as part of a brunch, and I thought it was a lovely "gift" of music and poetry.

Finally, I loved the worship service yesterday morning. It was a service in honor of the harvest, and also in honor or remembrance of all who suffer from food shortages or who are hungry, and all who labor to grow or produce the foods that we eat.  It also was about things we could do differently to help with food crises, and it included people bringing up to the front of the church their donations of food for three food pantries or charities in Exeter. The service was led by the Elders of the church (about 10 of them) and some young boy and girl scouts (that may not be what they are called).  There were skits, demonstrations about the shortage in the world of farmable land, and special prayers and hymns.  I picked up some good pointers, including some good prayers and hymns about creation and God as creator!

That's all for now.
Jane

After my first full week, plus some, at Exeter

Dear family, friends, colleagues, and all,

This blog posting will probably be more reflective than my earlier postings.  I don't have any new photos to show you, but I will when I do my next entry a week from now.

This past week was what they call "Freshers Week" here, which is an introductory week for freshmen and others.  I did take part in a couple of the welcoming events for graduate students, and I met a few PhD students from all over.  Then I took the one-day introductory class on how to teach at the university level, which I had very much been looking forward to. This was all day on Friday, and the class was excellent and very well taught, but I felt so, so, so old.  I don't usually think much about my age, but I was sitting in a lecture hall with 50-60 PhD students, and most of them were in their 20s.   I truly did feel old, and I could see all the wrinkles and faults on my face and neck when I got back home.  Even so, I am plowing forward, and I am eager to figure out how I can take advantage of my age, wisdom, and experience in a new field.  I just wish I felt more assertive.  I do not feel as much like myself here.  :-)

The other major accomplishment of this past week was that I was able to walk everywhere by myself, thanks to all the things Debbie and I did last week, and thanks to the lovely walking tour of the major parts of the city center (or "centre" as they spell it here), given to me by my wonderful landlord Rosie.  I was able to go out to eat by myself twice at night, and once for lunch on campus, and I figured out the British pounds.  I also have made additional forays to the grocery store, to get more things since the time Debbie helped me stock up, and I've cooked and eaten at home many times.  So I am really making headway.

This morning I went back to the United Reformed Church (URC), where I will be attending weekly services, and it was very nice to be there.  Some of you at our church in Bethel know that I like to sit in my pew and gaze up at the cross, and I was able to do that today at the URC church, and it made me happy.  I stayed for coffee hour, and they were very cordial to me, but then the coordinator of next week's Harvest Brunch asked me to sign up to bring something!  You know what that means to me!  It has to be something I can buy!  She asked me last, after she had everyone else signed up, and we could not settle on something.  So finally she agreed, very kindly, to allow me to bring an item of my choice to put on the table for all to enjoy!  I promised her it would be something good.

I do need to finish my huge chapter and give it to Morwenna by two weeks from tomorrow, so I have some work to do.  All the research has been done for a while. It's the serious, heads-down writing time that I need. Thank God --- literally --- I do have that time here in Exeter.  I am all settled now, after having spent last week doing things to get myself acquainted, and I have all that I need here, including your love and support.  Please pray for me.  And please stay in touch, whether by email or Facebook or other ways.  By the way, SKYPE video sessions work fairly well, although those of you who have SKYPED with me have found that we do get scrambled and dropped.

Blessings,
Jane

First few days in Exeter

Dear friends, family, colleagues, and all who read this,

I have now been in Exeter for two and a half days, having arrived safely at my new "flat" around 11:00 AM UK time on Friday. It's now just a little after 6:00 PM on Sunday.  My flight from JFK to Heathrow was far better than I could have imagined, and my very good friend Debbie, who is an American who lives in England, was there to greet me.

We found that my new "flat" is lovely. It's on the third and fourth floors of a four-storey building, and my main working area and bedroom, which are combined into one room, are on the fourth floor, in a garrett setting. I have a lovely view across the street to a little park, and it's a very short walk on the lane behind the park to get up to the university campus. It took us between 10 and 15 minutes total to walk to the building where the theology department was, and the hills were far less steep than on the other side of the campus (where I had been the time I came to visit).

On Saturday morning, Debbie and I went to the university's library so that I could ask them where to find the theology sections, including for Augustine, and they actually had someone give us a personal tour. I was thrilled to find out that they have most of the books I'll need --- many of which I had had to leave behind in my own personal library in my home in Bethel.  And there are student tables, with laptop connections, directly adjacent to the Augustine section!  They also had many of the books on the Trinity and the doctrine of creation I could need --- and fortunately, I brought the ones I really need with me.  And they have a great section on theology and creation and science.  So, that was wonderful news!

Thanks to Debbie, my new flat is now stocked with the things I need to survive. It's a fully furnished flat, and I should thank my landlords first of all, as everything is lovely, and the kitchen has all the dishes and things you would want, plus a clothes washer and dryer.  But Debbie went around the flat and made lists of thing we needed, and for over two days, she took me to various places so that I could purchase what I need.  She and I wanted to share a laugh with those of you who know that I don't cook much anymore, and that I was used to eating at Plain Jane's most of the time.  For our final "big grocery shop" today, where we took the car to get big things, she said to me, "our cart is full, and you have very little in it to eat!"  And she refused to leave the store until we had some more food, including bags of frozen salmon and cod, and lots of rice!

We went to church this morning at the Southernhay United Reformed Church, and I stayed after and introduced myself and met several people, and I told them I'd be back next Sunday. Then we walked by the huge Cathedral (Anglican), and had a lunch at a cafe on the Cathedral green. I'll go to the Cathedral for services from time to time.

I am all set up now, and Debbie, a true saint, left at 4:00 PM today.  Tomorrow morning, it's back to my huge chapter on Augustine, and I'm going to the old library on campus to see if they have any hidden Augustine resources there.

The picture of me in front of the church is at the Reformed Church.  Debbie is seated on a wall in front of the Anglican Cathedral.  We have pictures of my view out front (trees) and the view out back (a Gospel church with a sign that says that Jesus Christ is Lord).  And pictures of Debbie and me each sitting in my new desk chair, which we went out and bought, and which Debbie assembled.

Next time, my blog post will be shorter.

Jane