Tag: Humor

Canterbury is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Anglican Church.

He is to the Anglican Church what the Patriarch of Constantinople is to the Orthodox Church, and the Pope is to the Roman Catholic Church.

As I mentioned in the Day 2 post, Augustine, the missionary to England became the first Archbishop of Canterbury after King Aethelburht’s conversion around 600 A.D.

The plan was to drive to Canterbury to see Canterbury Cathedral, the Abbey of St. Augustine, where King Aethelberht and St. Augustine were buried, and St. Martin’s Church, where King Aethelberht was baptized.

The old town of Canterbury probably does not look much different than it did 1,000 years ago with its narrow streets meandering through a rows of quaint stores and restaurants. Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal—Day 5”

Today was an all-Oxford day.

The Wife did a great job of hiring a private tour guide for Oxford—a 2nd year Oxford student named Zach, with a professorial knowledge of history.

We told him we were interested in Wycliffe, Tyndale, the English Reformation and C.S. Lewis, and he expertly tailored the tour to those subjects.

He took us to Merton College where Wycliffe was a student and Balliol College, where Wycliffe was the Master.

We stopped  at Hertford College, formerly Magdlen Hall, where Tyndale was a student, and Christ Church College where Charles Wesley was a student.

All of this confirmed again for of us the importance of campus ministry. The Wife was a campus minister for 15 years, and Dr. H and Mrs. H for many years pastored a church birthed out of a campus ministry and trained others on reaching college students for Jesus. Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal—Day 4”

We spent a relaxing morning at our hotel, the Old Parsonage Hotel, in Oxford.

One of the best parts of a vacation is not having to be anywhere at any particular time.

We have a very general itinerary with hotel reservations in certain locations on certain dates, but beyond that there is a list of things we would like to do but don’t have to do.

There is form but within the form freedom.

The form keeps us on mission; the freedom allows us to relax.

Stonehenge was never on our list for this trip but was a place I always wanted to see.

When I looked at the map at breakfast to see what was within driving distance, there it was, only a 90 minute drive away, which for Americans is merely a long commute. I ran the idea by the GSB team and they all immediately said, “Yes!” Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal—Day 3”

When we strolled out of London’s Heathrow Airport to the pick-up area we were supposed to be met by a van, courtesy of our travel agent, who would take us to the car rental place.

When the car didn’t show, we called. The driver said she was at the pick-up in Glasgow Airport, but didn’t see us.

This didn’t surprise me, since although not trained in the science of optometry, I am generally aware most people cannot see from Glasgow to London.

Fortunately, we were on vacation, didn’t have to be anywhere, and no one stressed about it.

Our travel agent, no doubt embarrassed about not knowing the difference between London and Glasgow, called ahead to Avis and got us a complementary upgrade to a Mercedes  van, or is it a bus? Whatever it is it is very long, and I suspect it will present us with some challenges before our journey is completed. Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal—Day 2”

The UK Kingdom Travel Journal tour is underway.

As I write this, we are somewhere over the Atlantic on our way to London.

We will start in England from a base in Oxford as we examine the Kingdom history of England. From there we will journey north, ultimately into Scotland where we will examine the Kingdom history of Scotland.

By “Kingdom history” I mean those historical events in which King Jesus is conspicuously engaged in the advancement of His kingdom on earth.

So, we will be concerned with the first missionaries to England and Scotland, the England and Scottish Reformations, and more recent world-changers such as William Wilberforce and C.S. Lewis. As always, we will be interested in those people whom King Jesus has used to further advance his kingdom toward its inevitable destiny the tree in whose branches the nations of the earth nested. Continue reading “UK Kingdom Travel Journal—Day 1”