Rome

Ah, Rome. What a fantastic city! So much history--both known and unknown. At the same time, both humbling and rejuvenating.

One of the best things about living in England is its proximity to other places. Throughout the next several months, I fully intend to exploit that fact to its fullest measure. Aside from the great trips to Portugal, I had as yet to venture any further onto the Continent...until last week, when Jenny and I took a brief yet absolutely wonderful trip to Rome.

We left Norwich early (4:15 am) on Wednesday and headed to Heathrow airport. We had planned this holiday in February, so by this time we were pretty excited to finally be on our way. Of course, the weather wasn't that great and our flight was delayed...but no worries, we finally got there. After collecting my luggage from baggage claim (it was too heavy to carry on...stupid books), we made our way through the airport and found the train station. Da Vinci airport is about 18 miles outside the city, so we took the train in, caught the Metro (subway) and finally made it to our hotel....where we collapsed. Later that evening, we ventured out, found a nice sidewalk restaurant, had some great Italian food (actually authentic Italian...what a concept!), and walked back to the hotel. We slept really well that night.

On Thursday, we decided to do the Vatican. Our hotel was only two blocks away, so it was really convenient to just walk right over. Yes...we walked right over to the Vatican. Insane, really. To be close enough to walk. Amazing. Anyway, we walked over and made our way into St. Peter's Square. So we're already really excited and we get there and just take it all in. After a few moments of reflection and photo taking, we head in to St. Peter's Basilica. Absolutely gorgeous building, though we were dismayed at the number of people inside. We shouldn't have been shocked, really, but there were tourists there for which the building had no meaning, other than being a beautiful work of art. But for Christians (even non-Catholics), it has much more meaning. Even for Protestants, the history of Christ's Church comes through this place. It was difficult to take it all in because of the sheer number of people. So we walked around the basilica, seeing what there was to see, and on our way out, they ring a bell, a group of five priests file in to one of the side chapels and Mass begins. We decide to stay. We didn't understand a word that was said, but we understood what was going on. We went to Mass in St. Peter's...incredible. We then went to the Castel Sant'Angelo, looked around, and then headed back to the Vatican Museum, home of the Sistine Chapel. We had been by earlier, but the queue was longer than we wanted to endure. When we went back, we felt it was managable, so we waited in line. We finally get in and walk for miles. In order to get to the Chapel, the route takes you through the rest of the museum. Beautiful artwork throughout the museum, but nobody really stops to look at it because they all want to get to the Chapel. So after walking FOREVER, we finally get to the Sistine Chapel. Again, lots of tourists and lots of noise, so we didn't feel we could take it all in properly, but it was still pretty cool. I couldn't believe I was seeing, in person, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Yet there we were and there it was. Phenomenal. Literally. So after that, we decided we'd had enough, so we walked back to the hotel, rested for a couple of hours before going out again. We went to the Spanish Steps and the Piazza del Popolo and engaged in some anthropological tourism (people watched). More on our evening festivities later.

On Friday, we were slated to head across the city to see the ancient Roman things. We walked to the Metro station with our day planned out as to which station took us to which site. Come to find out, Metro workers were on strike. Great. Now what? We took a taxi. God was with us and we made it to the Coloseum. Yep, we went to the Coloseum. Ha! Fascinating place. Absolutely enormous and so full of history. Jenny had a hard time thinking about all the martyrs who gave their life for the faith in that place. It was definitely a heavy thing to think about. We then walked through the Forum, saw the Italian government buildings, stopped for some lunch, and visited the Pantheon. We stopped and did some shopping in the Piazza Navona and then made our way back across the city on foot. Rome really isn't that big, and we had gorgeous weather both days, so we walked back to the hotel.



I think our favorite (or favourite) parts of the trip were the evenings. We went to a sidewalk cafe that we would stumble across, eat some delicious Italian food, drink some good Italian wine, and then head over to St. Peter's Square. That place is absolutely magical at night. There were only a few tourists about, the were quiet and unobtrusive, and the place is beautiful all lit up. We'd stare at the Pope's window to see if we could catch a glimpse (we didn't) or gaze at the beauty of the basilica lit up at night. Basically, it was a time to relax and reflect...something I hadn't had time to do in a while. And to think of the things of God in such a place held deep meaning for me. Ever since my Church history classes at Duke, my understanding of faith has been deeply rooted in the Tradition (not traditionalism) of Faith that has been passed down through centuries of faithful (and some unfaithful) believers. What a debt we owe to those who have gone before. And so in this historical and richly beautiful surround, I found time to think on things of God. From that time, I returned to England, hesitant to let the feeling go, but wanting to carry it forward into the work of ministry.

Of course, then I ran smack dab into Sunday and Monday morning and the glow couldn't last, but I do take with me the memories of the days in Rome with me and will recall those moments of peace to carry me through when needed.

It's a love-hate relationship, really.

Now that I've been in this country for quite a few months, people have stopped asking me if I've 'settled in alright' and started asking me how I'm enjoying the country and my stay here. Most of the time, I respond with something akin to, "Yeah, it's been great. I've decided to stay an extra year, so it can't be all bad!" But this week has provided a couple of opportunities for reflection that I thought I might share with you.

On the one hand, I love it here! On Monday afternoon, I had a meeting in Drayton (the village next to the estate I live on) and a church member nearby also planned on attending the same meeting. Like a good minister, I rang him up to see if he'd like a ride to the meeting, as he doesn't drive. When he answered the phone and I made my offer, he mentioned that, since it weather was good, he had made plans to walk. I had considered walking to the meeting, myself, and so we agreed to walk to the meeting. It wasn't very far--took maybe 20 minutes at a leisurely pace--but it wasn't one street over either. At that moment, I realized how different my life is here. At home, I would have felt guilty for wasting the 40 minutes it took to walk to and from the meeting instead of only using about 5 minutes driving. But here, it is almost the opposite--why waste a gorgeous day by driving when you can walk? It was glorious! At times, the English culture can be so laid back and take-time-to-smell-the-roses. Of course, at others, it can be quite manic, but on the whole, I can say I appreciate the desire to be less interested in getting to the finish line than in just enjoying the route.

While you're enjoying the rosiness of the above paragraph, let me state that Monday didn't start off quite as rosy. In fact, it nearly ruined my day. I had a meeting with one of my Anglican colleagues and it did not go well. Without getting into details, suffice it to say that he has a hard time seeing the Methodist perspective and accused me of acting inappropriately when the stewards at all FOUR of my churches decided to have a joint service one Sunday in July. He can't seem to understand that the Methodist congregation is under no obligation to stop being Methodist just because it might not suit him. After the meeting, when he promised to try and score political points with my church members when participating in a plan that would benefit him to, I felt quite unsettled. So I went to Jenny's and had a good rant. It felt good. When I arrived home, I called the circuit super, filled him in, and asked his advice. He then informed me that a letter had been written from the Bishop of Norwich (Anglican) to the Chair of District (Methodist) complaining that I am able to preside at Communion. (I'm not fully ordained, and that's a problem for Anglicans.) Now, I had already heard through the ecclesial grapevine that this colleague of mine was a bit bitter over it all, but had no idea that the hierarchy had gotten involved. My annoyance level just shot up another couple of notches. First of all, from his perspective, his argument is perfectly valid. I disagree with him, but I respect his right to believe in such a way. However, my ire focuses on the fact that he never saw fit to tell me of his difficulties. Now I feel like a fool. He's been acting like we're getting along famously...and then I find out that my very presence is a problem for him. I was a mite pissed (American style, not English...yet...). Here's what I don't like about England--Anglicans. More and more, I appreciate why the founders of the US did not want a state religion (aside from my theological concerns about the established church). Because Anglicans are the established church and more rigid in their doctrine, it seems as though we have to fit in around them, at the cost of our own tradition. If something doesn't go their way, they'll raise a right stink over it until the offending party either disappears or changes their behavior. (Disclaimer: Not all Anglicans are bad. It's just a general demeanor that pervades a lot of what we do ecumenically. These comments are generalizations and not always accurate all the time.)

I'm all for ecumenism. I think I've established this fact in earlier posts. However, all the doctrine and polity that I studied in my ecumenism class at Duke, while providing excellent background for understanding, helps not at all when dealing with real people!