Britain

Well, we are back from a wonderful trip to England. We spent most of our time with our friends, Pody and Rick from Illinois. Pody is teaching in Canterbury this semester and what a lovely city. It reminded me of going to a Renaissance Festival. It was so beautiful. The Canterbury Cathedral is just a five minute walk from Pody's apartment and it is so amazing.

Pody got us tickets to a Christmas Carol concert at the Cathedral one night and it was a candlelight service with their boy's choir singing. You can just imagine how that was. And on Saturday morning, there was a Christmas parade and Father Christmas met the Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of the processional. Then there were carols and a small ceremony. Father Christmas garnered much more attention than the Archbishop. The amazing thing that Pody and I both noticed was that if this had been done in America there would have been security all over the place with barricades and crowd control. But not the case in Canterbury. The parade was not what we think of as a parade here -- it is hard to describe but soon I will post some photos on the blog. But the meeting of the Archbishop is a big deal and there was no one "protecting" him or security. And, Pody and I actually got to speak with him....which was even more amazing. Pody had greetings for him from the University of Illinois where the Archbiship had a god daughter that attended there. Someone casually said to Pody before she left Illinois, if you ever see the Archbishop send him our regards. Well, who ever thought that would happen but it did!

I guess the funny thing to me was that when I was in England over 30 years ago, I stayed with some friends in Manchester. They had a dinner to go to in London and they took me along and at the dinner was the Archbishop of Canterbury. I had no idea who he even was (I was only 18 and pretty ignorant about all that stuff) and I got to meet him and talk with him. I wasn't real impressed at the time because I really didn't know anything about the Church and all of that stuff! It is a different Archbishop now, but to think that my path crossed with the Archbishop's twice is something I would have never thought would happen.

Pody has been sick with a cold and I felt bad as she and her husband played host since she was sick, she should have been getting some rest.

I did o.k. -- got tired but we did a lot and that was to be expected. There is more to tell and I will at another post with promised pictures. I just wanted to give you a quick post and let you know that we have returned. I'm anxious to share our adventure with you.

Kris