The most beautiful cathedral

I’m not usually one for church architecture but this is simply the most beautiful cathedral I’ve seen. Its the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, designed by Gaudi, who also did this:

I’m off back to Barcelona to visit friends and to take in a FC Barcelona game at the Nou Camp.

Sunset on the east coast

Brentor – a stupid place to build a church?

A few days ago I visited a church near the village of Brentor in West Devon. It is an old church, roughly 12th century, and nicely built, but it was built on the top of a tor – a hill with a rocky top to it. It is very exposed and not easy to get to.

My first reaction that this was a stupid place to build a church – in a very inaccessible place on the top of a hill, well outside the village. The path up to it is dangerous in bad weather and even in good weather it restricts many elderly people from getting there.

It’s location means that they currently only have one service a week between Easter and September, and even then only when it is not raining. A couple of centuries later they built a ;chapel of ease’ another church in the village which could serve the needs of the community more adequately – even the locals seemed to agree that is was a stupid place to build a church.

That is, if you want to use it as a parish church. As we climbed up the hill we found that its exposed location led to a wonderful view. We had a great sense of being away from the noise of the roads and towns. When we went inside and looked at the visitors book, it was full of comments about how peaceful it was, and how people came back again and again to enjoy the presence of God. Perhaps, as a parish church it is in a bad location, but this church no longer exists for that.  Do we not need places of silence and peace to think about God and pray, and to enjoy the fine views of his creation? Perhaps I don’t stop often enough to do this!

Latte Art

On our travels we visited what seemed to be the coffee capital of the world – Portland and Seattle on the west coast of the USA. These towns are full of independent coffeeshops, with individual atmospheres – there are also loads of chain coffeshops like Starbucks, which started in Seattle, but we didn’t go in any of those.

One thing we loved, apart from the great coffee was the Latte Art. This is the process of drawing a picture into any steamed milk based coffee simply by carefully pouring the steamed milk over the espresso. There’s a video of a barista from a coffee shop in Chicago here. We were quite impressed at the designs they came out with. It was almost a shame to drink the coffee. I say almost, because, it was great coffee. (best mocha I’ve ever tasted at Stumptown Coffee Roasters in the Belmont district or Portland, OR. Their standard americanos and filter coffees are great too)

It is certainly transitory art – why all this effort for a bit of art that will be gone in 20 minutes. We got thinking that God must love this – taking pride and being creative for something that will be gone so soon. We loved it too. An equivalent mught be the story of the cleaner who makes an effort to sweep the floor under the mat in a room where nobody goes. God notices, and these things add colour and flavour to the world. Keep it up independent coffee shops of the north west!

Snow!

had a beautiful walk to college yesterday morning (Feb 07). First I came out of my door and saw this…

Then I took a diversion past the post box…

And past my church….

Finallly, I walked in the park, and this young man was waving at me….

I like it when God paints in white.

Christmas in America III

I’m back. Not blogged as much as I was hoping to. Ah well. Here’s a list of high and low points from my month away.

Highs:
- Spending lots of time with my wifes large family. There were 12 of us in the house just after Christmas.
- Having a fun day out nordic-skiing
- Having time to read – White Teeth (Zadie Smith). Excellent book which paints a very real picture of first and second generation ethnic minorities.
- Going to Atlanta to be Best Man for a school friend, who was also marrying an American.
- The temperature being 20 degrees celsius in Atlanta for a mid-January wedding.
- The Pound/Dollar exchange rate.

Lows:
- Being ill on Christmas day and missing Christmas lunch.
- The lack of snow in New Hampshire, limiting the amount of skiing possible. Although Colorado, Texas, and the Mid-West had unusual deluges, New Hampshire had its first smowless Christmas in 20 years.
- Realizing still quite how many American Christians still don’t believe in global warming – mainly, it seems, because the first people to promote the theory are pro-choice democrats.

Christmas in America II

Stuff that I have noticed so far:

1. Detroit airport is quite fun. There is a cool fountain type thing, a monorail which takes you from one end of the terminal to the other, and a blue light-show thing (above) on an underground walkway, and regular tv screens showing American Football games. However, Detroit airport is not complete. It has a huge void at its centre. The planners made a major mistake which affects every single passenger. Detroit airport suffers from the lack of a Dunkin’ Donuts. Every airport should have a Dunkin’ Donuts. That’s why I come to America.
2. Away in a Manger, and some other carols are sung to a different tune (my wife would be very proud that I didn’t call it the ‘wrong’ tune!). Not that there is anything wrong with the tune – it is a perfectly nice tune, but it made me realise how slight cultural differences and small changes in established Christmas traditions can change the feel of Christmas a little – putting emphasis in different places. Whilst part of me is thinking “It shouldn’t be done like that”, the other part is enjoing the enrichment that different cultures can provide.

3. Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings. We have started to hear this a little in England (Birmingham named their Christmas season ‘Winterval’ a few years ago), but here, although there are many more practising Christians, the standard greeting from shop assistants and in town centres is ‘happy holidays.’ Presumably this is so that practising Jews, Muslims, Seikhs and others will not be offended (usually, these people wouldn’t be offended anyway). Maybe this is a good thing that the consumerism of the season is separated, albeit slightly, from the birth of Christ. Nevertheless, I always have a policy of replying with ‘Merry Christmas’.

Christmas in America I

Flying tomorrow – America here we come!!!!! Show covered mountains, skiing, roasted chestnuts on an open fire, overly decorated homes, snow angels, starbucks gingerbread latte, snow people, “have a nice holiday!”, family, lots of sweet things, Christmas cantatas, and………

the land of the comedy license plates! Each state has a little slogan on their number plate, which is supposed to sum up the state somehow. For example, Missouri has “Show Me” because apparently Missouri people need to see evidence before they believe anything. Maine is “Vacationland” and New Jersey is “the Garden State” (it should be “The Strip Mall State”). I’m going to New Hampshire, where the slogan is “Live Free Or Die”, which is apparently what the nationalists shouted as they went into battle in the war of Independence. Hmmm… nice and welcoming for a Brit!

People also have little personalised messages on their licence plates too. Here’s a selection that I saw in South Carolina and New Hampshire over the summer – one is particularly proud of their stewardship!

This one is advertising their favourite psalm, seen in the car park of a Christian summer camp…

And this on the side of a breakdown vehicle. Perhaps if he’d walked in the law of the Lord he wouldn’t need his car?