UK Diary, Day 5
In which we leave Edinburgh, train to London, and worship at All Saints', Margaret Street
My friends, greetings in the Lord! I write from a youth hostel near St Paul’s Cathedral in London. As has been the custom during these diary entries, let us hear from Evelyn Underhill, a saintly Anglican mystic and confessor, as she wrote in her book Worship:
“Worship is a subject which must be of vital interest to all students of religion; and still more, to all those who are trying to live religion. Theology deals with the material of faith; the Fact of God and His revelation to men. But worship is faith in action; man’s total response to that God Who is the subject of theology. Together they form those two complement aspects of man’s religious life, which medieval symbolism expressed when it placed near to God the cherubim, who are the spirits of divine knowledge; and nearer still the seraphim, who are the spirits of adoring love.”
In short: We traveled here yesterday via 4.5 hr train ride from Edinburgh. It was sad to leave Scotland, but we hope to be back in the future. After we arrived in the city, we took the Tube (London’s underground subway) to Blackfriars station, and walked to our hostel. Then we headed to All Saints’, Margaret Street (via the Tube to Oxford Circus station). There we worshiped during their services of 5:15 pm Mass, 6 pm Choral Evensong followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The photograph above was taken by Hannah after the services.
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And now, the rest of the story, below the fold . . .
We were glad that our leaving day from Edinburgh was misty and foggy. It somehow, for me, made the trudge pulling heavy luggage through cobble-stone streets and stairs a more poetic occasion for physical suffering. Hannah returned the keys to the office, came back, and snapped our farewell photo:
On the way to Waverly rail station, we stopped for coffee and croissants, and then got to the station early. This meant we stood for about twenty minutes waiting for the departure board to list which platform from which our train would board. When it posted, we got to the train and found a patch of unreserved seats so that we could all sit near each other for the long ride. Here’s where some of the fam sat (Hilda being on Hannah’s lap in the lower right corner):
One of the stops the train made was at York. We joked about getting off there instead of London, because of our very fond memories of our last family UK vacation in 2014, which included five days in the marvelous city of York. Alas, “one can never go back.”
Getting to London after 4.5 hours, we detrained in Kings Cross station, which was impressively large.
We got ourselves to St Pancras station next door to this station. After a bit of confusion (I always get disoriented in these large rail stations), we realized that to get to the St Paul’s Cathedral district, we need to take the Tube, rather than the train (we were told there was a train misfunction somewhere on the line).
Mind you, all of this was so very exciting for Martin. Every train experience for him has been bubbly as well as cause for three thousand questions related to all things train. So getting on the subway filled him with joy::
We will be in London only through tomorrow morning. We are staying at YHA London St Paul’s, currently a youth hostel but formerly a school for choirboys. It is clean and low-key. All eight Dallmans are in a room filled with bunk-beds. Here’s a shot of that:
Hilda was quite pleased to be in Martin’s bed. Martin was quite pleased to have a light of his own.
After relaxing for a minute, we all got ready and pretty to head out to our Sunday worship. There was not time earlier Sunday to attend Mass in Edinburgh, so we planned to fulfill our Sunday obligation in London. We picked All Saints’, Margaret Street, which was a ten minute Tube ride away (which caused still more rejoicing by Martin). The station had a very long escalator, which Martin also celebrated.
We arrived at Oxford Circus, the Tube stop and neighborhood of London. It was, well, a circus. Tons of shops, brimming with pedestrians, busses, taxis, and energy. Hannah and I have “been around” in our days. We have lived in Chicago, New York City, and Boston. So the energy both did not faze us, and in my case, reminded me of days gone past (and, oddly, grounded me).
The hustle and bustle rather quickly gave way to quieter London side streets. We got to the All Saints in about five minutes, and headed in.
Once inside, one is thrown into worship merely being there:
Above, of course, is the high Altar within the chancel and sanctuary. If you zoom in on the photo, you will see quite a bit of iconography. Go to the church’s website where there is an interactive map of the church interior, which you can click on to see interior details beyond the bits I show here. The high Altar is where Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was celebrated.
Before those we assisted at Mass, which was celebrated at the Lady Altar:
Around the nave I found a statue for Our Lady of Walsingham, the shrine for which my family plans to visit later in our time here.
Here is what is closer to the ceiling of the church:
The Liturgy was beautiful, full of the Holy Ghost’s presence, and centered on Christ in Scripture, Sacrament, and iconography. We all felt satiated and nourished by our time at All Saints’. It is captured by Hannah’s photograph of Hilda after the services concluded:
Walking out of the church, we were invited by the Vicar (that is, Rector), Father Peter Anthony, to their parish bar in the undercroft. Martin said, “Yay! Coffee hour!” We stayed briefly, as we were all famished, the time being 7 pm and we had had no supper. I chatted with Fr Anthony along with Twyla, Izzi, and Oona for a moment. Oona captured it in this photograph:
He was very gracious and welcoming. Here I believe he was speaking with Twyla about her iconography study. We told him where the remainder of our stay would take us, and I verified the restaurant we picked for dinner was solid. He affirmed it was good.
We headed to Honest Burgers in Oxford Circus. It fit the bill: (1) open late, (2) unfussy food, (3) not expensive. These photographs do not quite do the place, nor our experience, justice, as we had a great time and ate up all the food.
We headed back to our hostel, again by Tube. And we had a lovely, short walk to and around St Paul’s Cathedral at night. I will end with these photographs. We plan to worship today at St Paul’s and walk around inside, along with heading to the British Museum as well. God bless!
