England, Entry 3

Below is chronicled our fourth day in England, available only to my paid subscribers. Thanks for reading, and I appreciate the notes I have received. Keep ‘em coming!

Saturday was our last full day with the Edgar family in Lancing. It began with Matins (as one does) in the church, after which Twyla and I joined Fr Edgar and his younger son Luke for a drive to Chichester, the cathedral city of Fr Edgar’s diocese. So we hopped into Fr Edgar’s car, and made a drive that ended up being about an hour because of high traffic. I sat upfront in the passenger seat, of course, and I am still getting used to sitting on the left side of the car as a passenger and not as the driver. So much so that I found myself sitting down and as a habit grabbing the car’s emergency brake and releasing it — because if I were on the left side of a car in the front, and I saw the emergency brake engaged, I would have first released it. Fr Edgar was … bemused.

The occasion for our travel to Chichester was to attend a meeting of the Chichester chapter of the Prayer Book Society. As it says on their website, the Prayer Book Society (PBS) has been actively campaigning for the wider use of the Book of Common Prayer in England for more than 50 years. And by Book of Common Prayer, they mean the 1662 UK iteration, which remains the official, canonical Prayer Book in England even to this day. The 1662 was very influential on the subsequent American Books of Common Prayer, and it held by orthodox-catholic Anglicans in the Episcopal Church generally with high respect. Of course it is a long story as to how we got from the 1662 BCP to the American BCPs — and the story involves the Scottish Episcopal Church making a deal with the first bishop of the Episcopal Church, Samual Seabury. Personally speaking, there is much to like and treasure of the 1662; but I also think that much (not all) of the liturgical development subsequent to it, in the American line of development, as been positive and even an improvement. Fr Edgar would be … bemused to hear that.

Anyway, we arrived in the city of Chichester, which immediately has an ancient feeling that sort of reminded me of Oxford when I stayed there in 2014 for my Martin Thornton pilgrimage and research trip. The cathedral itself is beautiful, and is quite integrated into the fabric and architecture of the city, although we did not see a lot of it. Fr Edgar parked the car and it was time for photographs:

Twyla and I were immediately inspired being there, even giddy. We are in a place that dates to AD 1075, after all! We walked through the passageways and turns of the cathedral grounds, and made our way inside the church ahead of the choral Mass according to the 1662 which was one of the two main events for this day’s PBS meeting.

We found our spot in the choir stalls. We sat just behind Fr Edgar and Luke, who themselves were seated next to Bradley Smith, who is the President of the PBS. He and I had met Thursday evening at the Mass in Eastbourne to license Fr Josh Delia. We had been mutuals on Twitter for some years, and my suspicious of mutual respect between us was confirmed when we finally shook hands and greeted each other “in meat space.” Seeing him again was great, and we chatted after the Mass about his recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in which he reported that the temperatures during his trip were often pushing 110 degrees, Fahrenheit (!!!). He accepted my gestures of empathy and commiseration knowing that I am now a Floridian. We wanted a photograph taken with me and Fr Edgar with him, and Twyla gladly obliged.

We walked about the cathedral for a while after the Mass. It is genuinely beautiful, and has a distinct sense of holiness. It feel like a cathedral the central and active purpose of which is worship of Jesus Christ. It is large but not overwhelmingly so, and had a nice gift shop which doubled as a museum showing ancient vessels for Holy Communions: chalices and patens, mainly. And there is a gorgeous Lady Chapel which, when not used for Liturgy, is also a place for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, such as when we were in it. These photographs of cathedral innards show the famous Icon of S. Richard of Chichest, a wall relief of the Raising of Lazarus, a stained glass by Marc Chagall (a favorite artist of me and Hannah), a shots from within the Lady Chapel

We decided not to attend the PBS luncheon in favor of heading to a pub. We picked on near the cathedral, which was bustling with patrons. I got a burger with cheese and bacon, along with a pint of Abbot ale.

The beer was quite good; the burger, sadly, was not great. But I was pleased that Twyla enjoyed her order of Fish and Chips, as well as her beverage of “lemonade.” That beverage played a near daily role in our family trip to the UK in 2017. The (then) four girls ordered this “lemonade” every time we ate out, and were quite fascinated by it. Twyla listed drinking it as something on her bucket list for this trip. Truth be told, it is not really lemonade. It seems like a syrupy, carbonated water thing that has at least a slice of lemon in it, and maybe a squirt or two of lemon syrup added?!? Here is Twyla’s action shot:

Bradley also owns a bookshop in Chichester, which the four of us headed to after the meal. It is a great spot, and I picked up a couple of gems both new and used.

We briefly hit a guitar shop in Chichester, something Luke wanted to see. Then we were off, back to Lancing, having had a very satisfying day in Chichester. Definitely a place we want to visit again with the whole family, and maybe stay for several days.

When we arrived back in Lancing, it was time for Evensong in the church (as one does), then back to the Edgar’s for pizza dinner. We were all a bit tired from the day, so it was mostly quiet till bedtime.