Day Six from Melissa

Hello!

Today was Sunday - a day of rest.

So we got up early, got dressed early, and got to the train station early - and the train was late.

So we were late to church.

Funny how that happens, isn't it?

Church was held at a wonderful little building on the same street as the Natural History museum and the Victoria and Albert museum.  It was built in the 1950's, on a vacant lot that had been bombed out during the Blitz.  David O. McKay gave the final go-ahead, even though the LDS church didn't own the land at the time.  Instead they got a lease of two thousand years, which was deemed acceptable.  Since that time however, the church has acquired the title to the land, so we're no longer leasing it.

Interestingly enough, it is apparently the only building in the world that is a combination church building and active Visitor's Center.  People come in all the time, asking to buy tickets to the "Mormon" show.  Missionaries politely offer a copy of the book instead.

We totally swamped their ward building, since with the two BYU Study Abroad programs in London right now, we number nearly 100 students.  Today was the only day that'll happen though.  The stake president has farmed us out to surrounding wards, and for the next five weeks I'll be attending the Clapham Common ward.

After church, Miriam and I were walking back to the train station when we saw a red balloon floating by.  It was flying low, looking a little lost.  We were discussing what a charming storybook that would make, and wondered what would become of it.  A few minutes later, turning a corner, we saw a darling little girl, holding the string of that very same balloon, following her mother down the sidewalk.  I love happy endings.

Less than a minute later, a large soap bubble floated by me.  At this point I started wondering how many round things were going to come drifting by.

And then I saw where it came from.

A street performer, dressed in a top hat, frock coat, gloves and tie, had a giant bubble blower on the end of two poles, and had set up in the middle of the pedestrian street.  The wind was blowing just strong enough to make the bubbles fly down the street, drift as high as the rooftops, and then whisk away or get whipped into long ribbons.

I now know what the Pied Piper was like.  Wherever this man walked, a horde of laughing children chased him, jumping up and popping the bubbles.  For the millionth time, I had to remind myself that I was not actually in Disneyland.  He had everyone entranced, even adults and teenagers stopped to stare and jump and pop a few bubbles.

On an unrelated note, this is a tree we walk by every day.  Can you tell me what that sign means?  Yes, I can read, but it doesn't make any sense!  I actually figured it out yesterday - let's see if you can.

After getting back to our room, we laid low for about an hour.  All the other girls went to sleep, but Miriam and I took off again and went to St. Paul's Cathedral.  We missed going to Evensong yesterday, because of the royal baby, but we made it today.

Getting off the train stop near St. Paul's, we could hear the church bells even before we saw the church.  I've never heard anything like them.  There were so many bells, struck so close together, that you couldn't hear the difference between the bell strikes.  There was just a massive, undulating wave of sound that picked us up and carried us - and also proved very handy when it came to finding the church.  We just followed our ears.

My camera lens got smudged, hence the foggy look.  The day was actually quite nice!

Everyone here claims that St. Paul's Cathedral has the second-biggest dome in the world.  I actually find conflicting reports when I look it up online, but I'm not about to argue.  It certainly looks huge.  It is one of the only buildings in that section of London that was not hit during the Blitz, and as such, it became a symbol of hope.  If you've ever seen Mary Poppins, you may recognize it from the "Feed the Birds" portion of the movie.

Going inside, I was taken aback.  There was not one single square inch of the building that wasn't decorated.  Looking around, there were mosaics, paintings, sculptures, tiles, carvings, memorials, molding, gold paint... I could keep going.  The ceiling was especially ornamented with pictures of angels, mosaics of the Savior's life, mottoes in Latin, and paintings of saints and apostles.  Around the dome were paintings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah.  My particular favorite was the one of John, because he had an angel with him, pointing something out with a raised arm.  Every time I looked at it, I thought of the angel saying "Look" to Nephi.

Sadly, no pictures of inside.  They said nothing about drawings though.  I am not an artist by any means, but it was better than nothing.

Don't laugh.  

The little cross on the right side is an overhead map of the church, with the circle showing where the dome is. X marks me. I was facing east, the short end of the cross. The drawing is of my view facing east, with the northeast and southeast corners showing  I don't know if it makes sense, but it was the best I could do. The dome was right over my head. 

We made sure to dress nice, so we could go into the meeting.  I noticed a lot of tourists trailed in wearing jeans, but I wanted to respect the place and beliefs of the worshipers.

Evensong is a part of the church services.  Since we're in England, it was Anglican, and most of it was in English.  The choir sang some, the congregation sang some, a soloist sang some, and a preacher preached.  I particularly enjoyed the organ music and the parts where I got to sing along.  The sheet music was included in our handout.

I've only ever attended church services at two other religions.  One was in a tiny church in Tennessee, and the other was today in St. Paul's Cathedral.  The contrast between the two was staggering.  I think  that as a church service, I enjoyed the one in Tennessee more though, because it felt less like a concert and more like a meeting with people that cared about you.  However, as a concert, St. Paul's was absolutely fabulous, and I enjoyed the chance to see how other people worship.  The atmosphere was almost unbearably grand, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

After that, we came home and laid low for the rest of the day.  Everyone is tired from the long week, and my feet hurt from yesterday.  Standing up on my toes hurts, and so does climbing into my bunk bed.  It's from all the standing on tiptoes at the hospital yesterday, trying to see over the TV cameras.  Still, that doesn't explain why my shoulders hurt.

Oh well.  Tomorrow is a busy day.  Hooray!