Hi! I cannot believe how this trip has whizzed by- it's already August! So many weeks have gone by ..
On Monday we drove up to Bamburgh Castle. It isn't like most castles because there are still apartments that you can pay to stay in! (There were places blocked off that said "PRIVATE APARTMENTS")
Bamburgh castle, in addition to being a castle, has an Aerospace Museum. It's not large, but has many pieces of things from airplanes and guns from WWII, and a huge gun that looks more like a tank. We enjoyed the view of the sea (however very foggy it was) and the towers and took loads of pictures!
What's a place that you can only go to when the tide is low? Lindisfarne Island, another Holy Island. This is an island where the Venerable Bede was ** (NO, not the cat, mind you,) and also St. Cuthbert. St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert had a monastery on this island, and we saw it's ruins. There was a map of what the monastery must have looked like when it was running. Magnificent!
There was also a museum on Lindisfarne that talked about what the different saints did on Lindisfarne and where they went from there. Surprisingly enough, there were lots of little shops and things as well.
When finished at Lindisfarne we drove back to the cottage.
That is just some of what we did in Sparty lea!
After we had checked out of the cottage and said Ciao to the birds we drove to the house of Dad's highschool friend, Adrian, and spent the night in his very old, beautiful Georgian house. 1700's! He was very nice and cooked dinner for us and everything.
After saying good-bye to Adrian we drove 200 miles to our hotel, and had dinner an hour later. And that's where I am now!
Best wishes to everyone and see you soon,
Margaret
** from Mom: Bede never went to Lindisfarne but somehow he knew all about what Cuthbert did there, when he wrote his Ecclesiastical (=church) History of the English People, around the year 731. Bede was a monk who lived at Jarrow, not far from his final (but not original) resting place at Durham. But that's another story.
Showing posts with label pilgrimage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pilgrimage. Show all posts
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Celtic Spirituality, July 16-17
We arrived at St. Deiniol's Residential Library on Wednesday July 18, having delivered my mother and the girls to the Victorian seaside resort of Llandudno. St. Deiniol's was founded by Sir William Gladstone in 1894, receiving additional funding from his descendants and friends. The library not only houses Gladstone's extensive collection of books (and more, of course, since then), but is also a theologically-minded conferenc and retreat center.
We're here for the library's annual Celtic Course. This year's subtitle is "Ancient Sites, Ancient Gods and a Living Faith," and we partake of all three through a combination of lectures and field-trips. There's a class of about 20 students, many of whom are from the US as part of Drew Theological Seminary's DMin program. Also there are several retired English persons and another American pastor on Sabbatical.
Our first lecturer was Ian Bradley, who teaches at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, and (apparently) is a well-known broadcaster on BBC-2 radio; he's also written a number of books. Ian's first task was to debunk "Celtic Christianity" by poking with delightful, cynical quips at the romantic notions that most of us had. He quoted JRR Tolkien: "'Celtic' is a magic bag into which almost anything can be put, and from which almost anything can be taken." There's little evidence to support most of what's marketed as "Celtic" these days.
What we do know about Christianity in the British Isles in the 6th - 12th centuries: It was monastic in character (communal, but not necessarily single-sex); with a strong tradition of pilgrimage (moving frequently, not necessarily having a long-term home-base); and a deep connection to the saints as role models. Dreams played an important role in its mysticism; and springs or wells became sacred places since they represented baptism, quenching of thirst and healing.
To illustrate those ideas, we took a tour bus over highways and some very narrow streets, to the Llyn Peninsula where centuries of pilgrims have made their way west. Like them, we visited two shrines (now churches) dedicated to St. Beuno, a travelling monastic who covered extraordinary territory in Wales making converts, beginning communities and then moving on.
The final stop was the Church of St. Hywyn at the very western tip of the peninsula, near the point where one could take a boat if the weather was good, to Bardsey Island, where 20,000 saints are reputedly buried. (Hmm. It's not that big.) We did not have a boat to check the facts in person. But the vicar there at St. Hywyn's led us in a meditation, asking us to think of our life as a journey to the west, stopping at holy places for refreshment before moving on. To paraphrase a quote from the 6th century Irish saint Columbanus (not to be confused with Columba): "Life is a way, a roadway. We walk upon it, we do not dwell in one place. For some the road is long, for others short; for some it is happy, for others it is sad. But we are all seeking a homeland in the west, there to dwell eternally."
May your journey this week be blessed by God, keeper of roads and resting places.
-Susan Williams
We're here for the library's annual Celtic Course. This year's subtitle is "Ancient Sites, Ancient Gods and a Living Faith," and we partake of all three through a combination of lectures and field-trips. There's a class of about 20 students, many of whom are from the US as part of Drew Theological Seminary's DMin program. Also there are several retired English persons and another American pastor on Sabbatical.
Our first lecturer was Ian Bradley, who teaches at St. Andrew's University, Scotland, and (apparently) is a well-known broadcaster on BBC-2 radio; he's also written a number of books. Ian's first task was to debunk "Celtic Christianity" by poking with delightful, cynical quips at the romantic notions that most of us had. He quoted JRR Tolkien: "'Celtic' is a magic bag into which almost anything can be put, and from which almost anything can be taken." There's little evidence to support most of what's marketed as "Celtic" these days.
What we do know about Christianity in the British Isles in the 6th - 12th centuries: It was monastic in character (communal, but not necessarily single-sex); with a strong tradition of pilgrimage (moving frequently, not necessarily having a long-term home-base); and a deep connection to the saints as role models. Dreams played an important role in its mysticism; and springs or wells became sacred places since they represented baptism, quenching of thirst and healing.
To illustrate those ideas, we took a tour bus over highways and some very narrow streets, to the Llyn Peninsula where centuries of pilgrims have made their way west. Like them, we visited two shrines (now churches) dedicated to St. Beuno, a travelling monastic who covered extraordinary territory in Wales making converts, beginning communities and then moving on.
The final stop was the Church of St. Hywyn at the very western tip of the peninsula, near the point where one could take a boat if the weather was good, to Bardsey Island, where 20,000 saints are reputedly buried. (Hmm. It's not that big.) We did not have a boat to check the facts in person. But the vicar there at St. Hywyn's led us in a meditation, asking us to think of our life as a journey to the west, stopping at holy places for refreshment before moving on. To paraphrase a quote from the 6th century Irish saint Columbanus (not to be confused with Columba): "Life is a way, a roadway. We walk upon it, we do not dwell in one place. For some the road is long, for others short; for some it is happy, for others it is sad. But we are all seeking a homeland in the west, there to dwell eternally."
May your journey this week be blessed by God, keeper of roads and resting places.
-Susan Williams
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