Salisbury

July 31

The priest who greeted us at the church today was soo cool. He was wearing his minister’s shirt with the collar but it was very casually untucked over his capris with camping sandals and a hoodie. And he spoke with an English accent! Mind you everyone speaks with some sort of an English accent here. It makes me often think of John and Evan. :-)

Today was a glorious weather day. Highlights included group work and lunch outside in the old cemetery surrounding the church. We discussed George Herbert's poetry. Then we did a 3 km walk through the Watermeadows to Salisbury Cathedral, a famous painting here. We stopped half way at the pub for a pint and watched the kids playing in the river and waterfall. I very much enjoyed watching adults, youth and children alike at play. The parks and green spaces were well being used by families and friends; children exploring with nets in the stream, youth playing football (aka soccer). The lawn surrounding the cathedral was beautiful for sitting on and I did, wrote some postcards and took in the atmosphere. Others were sitting or strolling about enjoying each other and the beauty of the day.

The cathedral is another beautiful medieval cathedral. I enjoyed the little museum section that had medieval church hardware on display such as communion chalices and the little plates the wafers go on. Also on display was a page from the Magna Carta. Very cool and beautiful. My favourite thing was the most beautiful baptismal font. It was in the center of the nave after you’ve come in through the doors. It has a lovely shape with four spouts that continuously pour out water. The surface of the water looks like a mirror, not like moving water at all. And in fact it acts like a mirror and reflects the high ceilings and stained glass windows. (see artsy picture above) The woman I spoke to said that they love using it and it’s a particular favourite of the bishop who during baptisms splashes the water all around. They’re sad to see it go, for the artist who gave it to them on loan is taking it back somehow, or moving it on.

We stayed for Evensong at the cathedral. That was an interesting experience. It was very neat to be sitting up in the old seats from the medieval times where important people had seemingly sat up in the quire. The choir was very coincidentally the church choir of St George’s Anglican in Oshawa! Unfortunately the service is set up so that if you’re not in the choir and you’re not a priest, then you’re not much of a participant. It was difficult to enter into any sort of worshipful time. I felt very much like an observer. I’d kind of felt like I had traveled in a time machine and was witnessing something from way back when. The language was also very much way back when.