Tag: Humor

After golf in the morning on the New Course at St. Andrews and lunch at The Jigger Inn, we set out for St. Andrews Castle and museum.

Some back story on the castle may help here.

During the early days of the Scottish Reformation, Cardinal David Beaton was the Archbishop of St. Andrews and the most powerful church official in Scotland.

Beaton had a mistress, with whom he produced eight children. Supposedly Beaton had twelve other children out of wedlock.

Beaton was not discrete about his hypocrisy; he lived in the castle with his mistress and children. In the midst of his hypocrisy, Beaton railed against the Protestants.

Beaton had Protestant Patrick Hamilton burned at the stake in 1528. Beaton had George Wishart burned at the stake in 1546. Beaton was the poster child for everything that was wrong with the Catholic Church. After Wishart’s martyrdom, the people had had enough, and a small group of men entered the castle and killed Beaton. Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal—Day 10”

Today we happened to be in St. Andrews on the one day of the year where the town recreates the run across the beach from the opening scene of Chariots of Fire.

That scene, which in the movie supposedly took place in Kent on the southern coast of England, was actually filmed here in St. Andrews on the beach adjacent to the 18th fairway of The Old Course.

Today, two hundred and fifty people in white t-shirts ran a three mile race on the beach while the theme from Chariots of Fire was played over loud speakers.

Eric Liddell, olympic athlete and missionary to China, actually has no other connection to St. Andrews, but the beach is one more recommendation for the town that better than any other brings together God and golf.

After leaving the beach we walked through the town centre to Holy Trinity Church. It was here John  Knox preached his first sermon in 1547. It was here on June 11, 1559, Knox would preach his famous sermon that many believe marked the beginning of the Scottish Reformation. And It was here three hundred years later that Old Tom Morris, four time British Open Champion, architect of The Old Course at St. Andrews, served as an elder. Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal—Day 9”

St. Andrews is my favorite city in the world and has been since the first time I visited here in 1986.

St. Andrews a city of God and golf, as I will explain over the next few days.

Today, the focus was on golf but not to the exclusion of God.

St. Andrews is the home of Golf and home to the most famous golf course in the world, The Old Course. The Old Course is difficult to play unless one calls well in advance and we did not.

But a certain number of spots become available each day for walk-ons through the booking process, and to that are added those spots that become available because of late cancellations. One never knows how many spots will be become available on any given day, so people begin lining up (“queuing up” as they say here) very early in the morning, sometimes the night before, at the door of the Pavilion next to the first tee. Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal Day—8”

We hated to leave York and talked about returning some day.

York had provided pleasant surprises and I’m sure we would have found others had we stayed, but we had hotel reservations in St. Andrews, five hours’ drive to the north.

Hull is the home of William Wilberforce, and Wilberforce’s home, now a museum, is now aptly named, Wilberforce House. 

At Wilberforce House we expected to find a tribute to William Wilberforce.

Instead, we found a very large house with very little about Wilberforce. Most of the house was filled with exhibits designed to convince of the evils of slavery—as if we needed convincing. Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal—Day 7”

Today we said goodbye to the Old Parsonage Hotel.

Our first stop of the day was St. Mary’s church in Lutterworth, where John Wycliffe was pastor from 1374 until his death in 1384.

As we neared Lutterworth, an ambulance sped by us on the outside lane, I immediately changed lanes to get around the slower car in front of me and began following the ambulance.

Dr. H did not hesitate, “Is that just a natural reflex to chase after ambulances?” Lawyer jokes had worn thin on me years ago, but this one was delivered with such skill even the hardest of barristers would have appreciated it.

We arrived at St. Mary’s church just after noon, not realizing the visiting hours were 10a-12p.

By the grace of God though, a kind man answered the door and allowed us in to look around.

What was found inside was amazing: Wycliffe’s 600 year-old pulpit, his chair, the baptismal font he had used, and a facsimile of his English translation of the Bible. Mrs. H pointed out that interspersed amongst this priceless artifacts was modern furniture used for their current congregation’s children-church, and adult church services. Perfect; not a museum but a living, breathing, functioning church. Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal—Day 6”