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July 15, 2002
Subject: England Trip - Letter #06
Monday, July 15, 2002
Dear Great Friends,
This morning the Birches and I had a beautiful breakfast of
hot poridge with warm milk, two fried eggs over toast and a little baked fish
with white sauce and ICED tea. Diedre has learned how to make great iced tea
through my tutiledge. It is not a common drink either here in England or in
South Africa. She started a new job today at 10am at a nearby home for the
elderly about 10 minutes away. She will be doing food preparation, cleaning and
adminstrative work there five days a week.
When John returned, we enjoyed more tea and attempted to
install a second hard disk into his computer. Sadly we failed. The disk is from
him computer in SA (South Africa) and contains quite a number of his musical
composition files, he would like to retrieve. He wants to add it as well as a
new large disk that his son brought over from the US last week. He is using a
133 MHz P1, for those of you who can appreciate his challenges. AOL is his ISP.
Around 11:30 we left for Christ Church (a town), which was
about 20 minutes away via the coastline of southern England. The coast of
England is very beautiful. The latitude here is slightly above that of Maine in
the US, and the weather is heavily moderated byt "the sea". There we visited the
Priory Church. This was built in 1094 and was a monastary for a very long time.
In that capacity the Monks worshiped there daily. The congregation has recently
restored their 18th century pipe organ and installed the 900the anniversary
window.
Their "history stewards" know a wealth of information about
the past and present ministry of their parish. They had done a very nice job of
moving the choir, altar and pulpit on the congregation side of the 'screen' so
that it is visible to the parish during worship services. Screens were very high
walls that obstructed the view of the monks and choir boys who sang the worship
services from the commoners who came to worship at their local parish church.
Since John was born and spent almost all his life in SQA, he
enjoys discovering these English treasures as much as I do. As John and I visit
we seem to discover many tracks of our lives that have been parallel. He was
raised as a Baptist by loving Christian parents who did all they knew to follow
God. He became an Anglican when he discovered the music and sacremental worship,
which could not be found in his present worship family. He deeply loves
Cathedral Music, composes for the choir and organ all for use in Christian
worship. He has had a passion for music, actively lead in schools and parishes
for over 45 years. He and Dierdre were married when he was 32 and she is nine
years younger than he (I am six younger than Jill). Their marriage and child
rearing experiences as well as John's personal spiritual journey has enjoyed
many insights and discovers that are similar to mine. He told me, "I have had
quite a difficult time, getting past knowing exactly that everything is either
right or wrong or black or white. There are many more shades of gray than I
believed earlier in my life." Hearing him talk about Katharyn, I would swear he
is talking about Christine. Their son Michael and our son Jonathan could be
friends, if like persons could get along. The first time John set foot in
England, he felt like he had come home. This is exactly how I have felt, every
time I have come here - including the first time. This year in England for John
is a life-long dream being fullfilled, through spiritual growth, music and
cultural richness. I feel that my being given to do my musical composition at
the Wesley Chapel on the Charles Wesley organ is also a once-in-a-lifetime dream
come ture. I have wanted to do this for many years, having John went to evensong
at Kings College, he thought there could be nothing closer to Heaven on Earth.
If you want to read about my such experience, go to
www.worshipandchurchmusic.com and select that link. Finally, John also loves
ginger snap cookies.
Those are some of the many ways he has expressed that are
parallel to my life, half way around the world and unknown to him or me. It is
truly amazing and I think God every day for John's heart to listen to and follow
God. It is an inspiration to me. John, thank you for not playing it safe and
neglecting to contact me. Without your initiative with me via email, we would
never have become friends and this trip to England would have been much less for
me.
Anyway, back to my events of the day... John then dropped me
off at the Bournemouth (pronounced "born'muth")for my £29 ($45 US) train ride
back to London. I arrived back at my hotel around 18:30 (6:30pm for those of us
in the colonies)and then enjoyed a wonderful dinner at an Italian Ristorante.
They happily prepared two excellent glasses of iced tea (about 6 oz each) for
£3.20 ($4.80 US).
Tomorrow I return to the Wesley Chapel and continue my
composition work. I will continue with my setting of lenten Psalms to music.
A week has passed and I know virtually no news from the US. I
will visit www.cnn.com and check it out. The British media cover very little
about the US, unless it is a good scandal or disaster. I guess we do about the
same at home. I am beginning to miss being home. I have talked to Jill, Jonathan
and Christine and my parents several times. Certainly I will be more relaxed
when I return to my normal hectic pace. I just hope that I might retain some of
the quietness and focust aht can only be had when you break your endless chain
of daily activities.
One thing that I will be enjoying working with when I return
is the many new musical works that John has composed. He provided me with quite
a few pieces of music in computer files, which I can review and publish on my
music web site (http://www.adorationpublishing.com). As I go through each one of
them, will certainly bring me back to our wonderful time together, sitting in
the little church where we played them together and Dierdre was sing along with
us.
Thanks for listening to this latest saga from England. I will
be in touch again soon.
Love,
Larry
Return to
London Trip Page
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• Denver, CO |
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