Weekend in York June 28-30

On June 28-30 the Williams ladies travelled by train to York, England, so that we could attend the ordination of Paul Dominiak at the astonishing York Minster cathedral... plus spend time with Kaitlin Krull Dominiak and tour that historic city. We did hear a lot of history - including ghost stories from the Roman era to the present! York makes the most of its nearly-2000 years of civilization.

Our weekend began on a rough note, however: Less than an hour after our arrival, Emily had to be taken to the walk-in health clinic! Chasing Margaret along the ancient city walls, Em tripped and landed on her knees, opening up the cut so recently stitched. Sigh. Her cut was butterflied back together and leg wrapped like a mummy, to minimize chances of more troubles. Needless to say, we moved slowly for the rest of the visit. But she was a real trooper about keeping up with it all.

Well, that was really the only "sore point" of a terrific weekend. As you can see from these photos and others posted on our photo page, the weather cleared up and we enjoyed many amazing sights. Highlights included the Minster, the very well done York Castle Museum (mostly history, including a Victorian-era street of shops with costumed staff), and the York Dungeons which brought ghost stories and plague scenes to life, featuring creepy characters from York's past. (The girls begged to go. I wanted to see the National Center for Early Music but their minds were made up.)

You can see more photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/revemw/SabbaticalPix.


The ordination service on Sunday was glorious, full of great Anglican music, prayer and ceremony. The famous Archbishop of York, John Sentamu (originally from Uganda) presided, along with a parade of clergy and 22 ordinands! Paul was the tallest so it was easy to pick him out of the crowd when they all stood for their Presentation and Examination, prior to kneeling in turn before the (rather short) Archbishop for their Ordination. Emily wants to point out that the service was exactly TWO HOURS LONG. Time well spent, I say.

As Americans it's hard to get our minds around the dates that get tossed about in York, such as: after the ordination, we joined Kaitlin, Paul and other family members for pizza in a building from 1764. And that's pretty new compared to certain parts of York in use since the Middle Ages. (The fact that the buildings lean a bit only adds to their charm.) Colorful characters are around every corner. Roman centurions, Viking marauders, medieval shop-keepers, victims of the plague, 17th century soldiers trying to hold out against Cromwell's army, and a Quaker tea-totaller named Rowntree who decided to create an alternative non-alcoholic beverage... are all citizens whose stories echo among the great walls of glorious Eboricum / Jorvik / York.


-Susan and Emily (Margaret's posting her own!)