Easter in Exeter

Hello everyone!  As you probably all know, today is Easter Sunday, the day that Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and his triumph over death. As a practicing Episcopalian, I headed off this morning to worship at the historic Exeter Cathedral.

I've already discussed the Cathedral in an earlier post, but to summarize , the Cathedral was designed in the Norman Style before being converted to Gothic Style. The building was begun in 1133, completed in 1400, and has been in use ever since. 

Exeter Cathedral is an Anglican Church, which meant that I was in for a smiliar yet different experience from what I'm normally used to. The Episcopal Church began as the American branch of the Anglican Church, however, after the American Revolution the leaders and members of the Church thought that it would be rather weird to pray for the King of England  and refer to themselves as his subjects in prayer, since the country had just fought an 8 year war to prove that he couldn't control them. Thus the Episcopal Church shares many similarities with the Anglican Church, but they do diverge on quite a few things. 

As I mentioned above, one of the chief differences between Anglicans and Episcopalians is that the Anglican service includes several prayers dedicated to the English monarch. Elizabeth II is considered the head of the English Church, so it makes sense that there would be prayers dedicated to her, just as Episcopalians pray for their Bishops and Catholics pray for the Pope. Furthermore, Elizabeth is also Head of State, so a prayer that she governs justly is the equivelant of when Episcopalians pray for "the President and Government of the United States." 

Another difference is that Anglican services either use the 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer or Common Worship, while Episcopalians use the 1979 version of the Book of Common Prayer (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). As such, I found that I knew the general message of most of the prayers, but was thrown off by some of the phrasing. Some of the differences were slight ('I believe in one God' rather than "We believe in one God" in the Nicene Creed), while others were quite significant (the Confession of Sin was completely different from the one I'm used to saying). Another difference was that, aside from the sermon, the Reverend delivered the service while facing the alter rather than the congregation. This was actually standard in the Episcopal Church for much of its history, but was changed sometime in the last 40 years(at St. Paul's in Philadelphia, we occasionally have nostalgia days where the Reverendwould also recite the service to the alter). Another difference, which might not apply to all Anglican services, was that the Reverend simply read his sermon rather than fully delivering it. In St. Paul's and Bruton I always got the sense that the Reverend was engaging with the Congregation and delivering a speech, rather than simply reading what they wrote. Again, this might just been that Reverend's personal way of delivering the sermon rather than a denominational thing, but it was an interesting nonetheless.

 I very much enjoyed the service. It was quite amazing to be in a Cathedral roughly five times the size of the churches I'm used to worshiping in, and I was able to follow the service fairly well despite the differences between the English and the American Book of Common Prayer. The service I attended didn't have music, which I did miss especially considering it was Easter, but that was my choice, as attending the service with music would have meant that I would miss out on my flat's Easter Brunch. In addition, the Celebrant sounded just like Alan Rickman, with the same accent and manner of speaking as the acclaimed thespian (I keep hoping that he would saying something Harry Potter related, but sadly he did not). One thing that I wish they would have done would have been to provide a service sheet, with the page numbers of prayers or printouts of the text. This would have greatly helped me in following along with some of the prayers.  

Anyway, so tomorrow I start my train journey around the UK. I'll be spending the day in London, then its off to Edinburgh for two days, Inverness for two days, and Glasgow for two days. From there I'll cross back into England to see Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall, and then to Stratford upon Avon to visit the birthplace of the world's greatest author. I'll conclude the trip by paying a visit to Oxford, and then it will be back to Exeter. I won't have my laptop with me, so I probably won't be uploading any posts during that time, but I'll be taking notes and pictures, and will have the blog posts up soon after I return.

Happy Easter!

Journeys-My Time in Liverpool (Part 2)

Okay, so after we saw the Liverpool Stadium, we visited the cities other cathedral, which, in contrast to the other Cathedrals I've visited, looked less like a church and more like Space Mountain.

The inside was similarly modern. I been to several theatre-in-the-rounds but I've never been inside a church with such a set up.

In addition to the church, that afternoon, we also visited City Hall and the famous Liver Building. The Pillars in front of city hall were still stained with what I believe is industrial soot, a remanet of the city's days as a leader during the Industrial Revolution.

The Liver building is famous for the Liver Birds (debate about what species they are continues to this very day) that are perched on top. Along with the Cathedrals, this magnificent building dominates the skyline.

  

The next morning we headed out to the waterfront. Liverpool, for many immigrants, their last European stop before they headed to the New World. The tired and poor folks boarded the ships in the Liverpool docks and headed off to what they hoped to be a better life.

 As I have ancestors from both northern England and Scotland there is a very high probability that they once stood on these docks, as they waited for their ships to leave to bring them to a new home.

  I wonder if they ever imagined that their descendant would one day return to Liverpool. No doubt, they would have had no idea of the many changes that the city has experienced. In the aftermath of WWII the city suffered a serious economic decline as shipping trends shifted from unloading products at a dock to unloading them at the factory. Recently, however, Liverpool has been able to revitalize its economy by focusing on tourism and travel. Indeed, the inner harbor's transformation from industrial port to tourist destination is similar to the revival experienced in Baltimore's inner harbor. Today, there are many museums and shops on the waterfront, a few of which we visited.

The Liverpool Museum traced the history of Liverpool, from the stone age to the computer age.

Thousands of years ago, large stags like these roamed England at the end of the last Ice Age.

Trains like this one helped transport the goods and materials of the Industrial Revolution. Surprisingly, this train could still be driven today if it were to be placed on a proper set of tracks.

As I mentioned above, if you had ancestors come to American from Europe, there's a good chance they came via Liverpool.

 In fact, they might have looked like this...

(...But probably not)

The famous Liver bird. I personally think its a heron or a phoenix, but people will probably continue to argue about it long after I'm gone.

The Vikings were one of the earliest inhabitants of Liverpool, and Viking 'treasure' has been found nearby.

He's like Uncle Sam, but British!

Certificate of citizenship for an immigrant who traveled to the US from Liverpool.

Modern day Liverpool.

A recreation of the Liverpool slums during the Industrial Revolution.

We also visited the Maritime Museum, which held examples of the many ships connected with the city.

Like the Titanic...

The Lusitania...

During World War II, mines like the one below we placed around British ports to disrupt shipping. They were also dropped on several English cities during the war as bombs.

Merchant marine ships were easy tragets for U-Boats (the harbor is filled with monuments to the fallen Sailors), so the government eventually started placing guns like these on the merchant vessels.

Registration info for the Titanic...

Thomas Ismay, owner of the White Star Line and the father of J. Bruce Ismay of Titanic fame, owned this set of gold table decorations...

 In addition to being the new manager of the Liverpool Football Club, I also got a job as a ship captain. Go me!

Items recovered from the Titanic...

Engines like this helped to power many of the vessels of the 19th century.

 

Below are models of the Confederate Blockade Runners built in Liverpool. The city was a haven for Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.

 

The top floors of the Museum are dedicated to the slave trade. Liverpool was part of the infamous triangle trade, and while there weren't many slaves delivered to the port, it neverthless reaped the profits human bondage. The Slave Trade Museum, as it is called, is dedicated to educating people about the horrors of slavery both past and present.

One of my favorite sayings...

African masks and figures...

After visiting the museums, we visited a reconstruction of the Cavern, the place where the Beatles got their start. While the original no longer exists, this reconstruction is quite faithful to the original, and they still have great bands performing.

 The Cavern also holds the telephone box seen in on so many album covers.

Like I said when I started this blog post,  Liverpool was the beginning of the journeys of countless people. For the Beatles, it was the place where they grew up and got their start as musicians. For many immigrants (including my ancestors) it was the beginning of a journey that would transport them to a new land. While the city still had problems with poverty as well as a history of troubled race relations that have culminated in several riots, it has also embarked on its own journey to reinvent itself for the 21st century.  Our journeys are what defines our lives, so whether you're in Liverpool, Erdenheim, Williamsburg, or anywhere else in the world, there's no better time than the present to start your own voyage of knowledge and discovery. For myself, I have another journey right on the horizon It's gonna take me from Exeter to the Highlands of Scotland and a lot of places in between. So keep checking this blog, because there's gonna be a lot to hear about during the month of April, and you won't want to miss it.