Tate Modern

The Tate Modern is a former power station on the southern bank of the Thames across from St. Paul's, crossed by the Millenium Bridge footpath. It holds the Tate Collection post-1900. It was interesting; I like certain forms of modern art very much, and in fact am obsessed with Kandinsky and respond very well to 1960s Pop artists like Lichtenstein as well as Dadaists from the teens and twenties. Only one Kandinksy unfortunately, and very few Dadaists. I was amused to see how little regarded my least favoroite forms of modern art seemed to be; the multiple fluorescent light installations and over-sized canvas pieces painted in a single color were quickly walked past. The Tate is also fortunate to have Piero Manzoni's Artist's Shit #4, in convenient canned form, and this also found few patrons! The Tate purchased this item in 2002 for about $45,000--the remaining pieces of Manzoni's original 90 cans are increasingly valuable as many of them are said to have exploded over the years!

Pork Faggots, Steak and Kidney Pie

Yes, this is what I have been eating this week. I have long loved steak and kidney pie (the Duke of Perth pub restaurant in Lakeview usually has them on the menu) but I had to try faggots for the name alone. It turns out they are related to haggis and other offal-based culinary creations--basically pork liver, pork, and traditionally pork cheek, rolled into what looks like Swedish meatballs (and sort of looks and tastes like a gamier Salisbry steak when it comes out of the oven). Very tasty!

Museum of London

The Museum of London is a cute little place right on the London town wall (one "exhibit" is simply a window, pointing out the spot where a Roman wall from the 1st century meets a 13th century tower!). It takes you through the prehistoric history of the Thames valley through Roman and medieval times up to the Great Fire. Very cool, very kid friendly--I was embarrassed when answering a computer pop quiz on patron saints, getting all the answers correct, and having it light up in full electronic jackpot mode as if I were at a casino! Maybe a little too kid-friendly there!

Tate Britain Gallery

Spent several hours here last weekend, very delightful, and the best organized gallery I have yet seen, entirely laid out in chronological order from the Middle Ages to 1900. My only complaint is that a few pieces are mounted behind such shiny reflective glass that there was simply no way to get a good view; unless what follows is salt water and tropical fish, there seems to be no need for the aquarium glass! I was especially struck by the Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt's 1952 piece, "Scattered Sheep: Our English Coasts." Taken by many as a comment on Britain's tendency toward isolationism, it was also seen as a rebuke to the clergy of the Church of England for being consumed by internal quarrels during this same time. The sheep certainly do seem bewildered!

Imperial War Museum

I live right nextdoor to this imposing edifice, immediately to the right of this pic, so given my own military service and my near-obsession with Napoleon and Frederick the Great, it was just a matter of time before I found myself lost here for five solid hours. It was a very powerful experience, with two whole floors devoted to "Crimes Against Humanity" and the Holocaust. I tended to disagree with quite a bit of the museum curators' point of view (I in fact do not think "any of us" could become genocides; I would posit that genocidal societies invariably are societies that devalue and subjugate women; once you subjugate 51%+ of your own population, it's much easier to begin sorting down those to kill; societies where women are not only equal but actually leaders are not ripe to become genocidal anytime soon it seems to me; etc, etc.). Also the snuff film sequence in the middle of the documentary, where we watch one Rwandan after another be slowly butchered, with a final close-up of a 12 year-old boy dying from a severe head gash, seemed to me to have the opposite effect of "sensitizing" us, especially after the documentary rather incredibly segues on from this to sing the praises of Fair Trade Coffee. I love Fair Trade Coffee, I endorse it unreservedly, but after watching the 12 year-old bleed out in close-up I simply wasn't in a very coffee kind of place, and the process of filming these graphic scenes always seems to skirt the edges of morality to me. Not to sound too harsh on the Imperial War Museum; it was in fact a very stirring experience that will remain with me long.

Mother Teresa's Dark Night of the Soul

A great deal of media coverage seems primed to hit over publication of Mother Teresa's private letters detailing her spiritual dryness over half a century of ministry. I tend to chalk this up to the classical "Dark Night of the Soul" idea, that those in regular and intimate communication with God don't always feel great about it, and that the mystery of suffering hits even the holiest among us. Some surprise is mentioned that Teresa seemed to feel this for so long, with no apparent respite, but I say that the problem with invading someone's private letters is that we don't know what went unrecorded, the single day of ecstasy or consolation so great that she didn't want to tell anyone about it.

The "Atheist Chic" movement is quick to say Teresa "realized" religion was a joke and that's why she spent half a century in spiritual pain. I would answer this with an only slightly less subversive idea; perhaps Teresa realized a great deal of pain over the lack of social justice in the world, specifically how the Christian Church contributes to much of this. Given the state of Christianity today, the days of mystics in ecstasy might well be finished, and perhaps this is a good thing. Running a hospice for AIDS victims is surely noble, but it might well cause one to reflect more on the type of "Christian morality" that influenced people's sexual decisions. Being the most famous nun in the world might well cause some painful doubt about the position of women in the world and in the church.

I don't mean to suggest that Teresa was tormented by a nagging, closeted liberalism, but rather that what we often dismiss as ideology might actually have a deeper spiritual significance that is unavoidable in the end. If one accepts the Natural Law framework that supports a theology of mystics and saintliness, the nagging subconscious realization that how Nature had been formally defined didn't seem to match everyday human reality might well cause anyone spiritual pain. Even a saint.

"Kid Nation" Reality TV Show to Premiere Sept. 19th, Greased with a Bit of Scandal

Something to look forward to when I return? A new reality tv show about 40 kids electing their own government in Montana will premiere the week I return to the USA, and already a participant's parent is complaining that child welfare laws were not followed. I can't quite follow the kernel of the complaint (inadequate supervision? failure to register with the state film office? child labor laws?) and my cynical nature leads me to wonder if this isn't part of the advance PR for the show, since I certainly had not heard of it until this story. But I must admit, I am intrigued.

New Pub--"Ye Old Mitre"

Very appropriately named public house for an Anglican student! This place at 1 Ely Court down the street from my job was established in 1546 and is decorated with portraits of the "previous owners"--Henry VIII and Elizabeth I! (Queen Mary Tudor, who was VERY concerned about old miters, apparently did not find them appropriate for a pub!). I had a Hop Back Summer Lightning Ale, brewed year round and actually quite mild for a stocky Irishman accustomed to Guinness like myself. Although I did end up taking the Tube home instead of walking! Also got to spend some time "networking" (in the best Bridget Jones sense of the term) with an MBA professor just starting out. Horror of horrors, they don't really have "tenure" in England!

Letters! I get Letters!

Give yourself a quality point if you have that old song running through your head. I received a letter from my friend, to whom I will give the blog-alias la Marquise de Niegebourger. Yay me! Who's a big winner?! It took exactly ten days to arrive here, not nearly as bad as it could have been. No one mentions receiving post cards from me, which makes me think I wasted $25+ on this since I am pretty sure they must have made it to the USA but not met American postal regulations and so remain undeleivered. Not so much a big winner there. But I also checked my blog traffic, and despite the dearth of comments here the blog is in fact being read; some people are actually tracking it on "Catholic Blog Tracker," which is ironic since technically this blog is arguably really part of the "Anglican blogosphere," except that in general I find almost all religious blogs so catty that I do not link to them or even read them much, Amy Welborn as always an exception. But thank you for writing, Madame de Niegebourger, and I hope you all get postcards from me eventually!

Obese Man Undergoes Bariatric Surgery for Kinship Adoption

A shocking story from last week just reached me. A 500 pound Missouri man, a licensed foster parent and adoptive father, has been found unfit to adopt his infant cousin, who has been shuttled into the state foster care system and away from the family chosen by his birth mother. We expect these kind of rulings from Beijing, where new adoption restrictions took effect recently and penalize obese adopters. Certainly no one is saying obesity "doesn't matter," but this is a sad and shocking story, and every day that baby spends in foster care makes it sadder.

St. Barnabas in Pimlico

Completely by accident I discovered St. Barnabas in Pimlico, the first church of the Oxford Movement, a place I was quite unable to find on a map when I set out to go there on purpose in July. My feelings were rather mixed; it was "pretty" but with such muddied theology that the sparse simplicity of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is so much more attractive to me, even though I prefer a pure Gothic (Westminster Abbey) or Baroque (St. Paul's) to such sparseness. An Anglican church which looks like a pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic church simply looks odd, and I would tend to question any theology that emphasizes so much the need to separate the laity from the clergy (even if through a fabulous gold reredos!). Interesting to find Stations of the Cross on the walls, theologically unobjectionable to be sure and rather pretty. But alas, there were also the usual warning signs about reservation of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the kind more commonly seen in Italy or Spain, as if actually EATING Holy Communion would constitute a blasphemy. I find myself rather undecided about eucharistic reservation; as an RCC seminarian things like monstrances were completely scandalous to me, and reserving the eucharist 24/7 "for the sick" seems frequently to result in the kinds of eucharistic practices that seem superstitious at best. Yes, I believe in the Real Presence, but the eucharist is Really Present to be Really Eaten, not stared at in a jewelry box or worse yet waved around in a miniature fish bowl. But I have often felt very recollected in front of a tabernacle myself, so I can see how it helps some people pray, and perhaps that is the most important thing.

National Army Museum

This weekend went to the National Army Museum, very interesting. I was attracted to the Napoleonic exhibits but also got very caught up in the World Wars exhibits. Then I pseudo-shopped at Harrods again (didn't buy anything, but did spritz myself with $80 cologne--Acqua di Parma, a little too sweet for me).

Posts Not Publishing?!

I'm feeling very cranky, a post I made yesterday, which Blogspot's dashboard still shows as posted, is not appearing. This fachachta blog doesn't even work as a diary that only I read if the posts don't actually post.

New Pub

Clock House, very cool, Old World atmosphere with a strangely mirrored ceiling. The important thing is, I feel like one of the cool kids.

Oxford Warns Evangelical Hall on Misogyny, Homophobia, Academic Standards

I still haven't made it to Oxford yet, but this article certainly gives me even more motivation to do so. Wycliffe Hall, the seminary at Oxford for Anglican ministers of an evangelical persuasion, has been warned to monitor for misogyny, homophobia, and low educational standards. Interesting side note that the average age of an Anglican ordinand out of Oxford is 41; I feel young again!

Freud's home

Freud's home in north London is quite impressive, a very small and very intimate museum off Finchley Road (in the infamous Margaret Thatcher's former constituency I believe). No photos were permitted, but while I obey this in St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, my infantile need for wish fulfillment proved too strong in Freud's own house, and I snapped several illicit pics of the famous couch and Freud's large consulting room. What struck me the most is that his desk, chairs, and the couch itself filled little more than one fourth of the room, while an enormous, dining-sized table covered in various stone idols and totems dominated the rest. The desk itself faced to the side, not at all business-like, and the "office" component seemed almost an afterthought. In this day of "solution-focused" short-term therapy that tends to take place in sterile, antiseptic, hospital-like offices, it was nice to see a room filled with objects and symbols by which the client could be inspired. A little disappointing that the museum seems to emphasize Freud's more bizarre cases and dream interpretation rather than the broad idea that the unconscious/subconscious mind inevitably affects our conscious lives and relationships. If you ask me, this little message is far more important than the Wolf Man et al.

London Zoo

Very pleased with the London Zoo (except for its misleading Tube posters, which sent me to the wrong and more expensive stop!). The Reptile House was all that I could hope for, king cobra, taipan, black mamba, numerous green mambas, numerous spitting cobras, etc. An American western diamondback rattler that did not come out, as well as a sidewinder (whose cage inexplicably contained an empty Budweiser bottle and an old pack of Marlborough cigarettes, as if Americans were such addicts we smoke and drank in the hottest desert!).

New Amy Welborn Blog

Amy Welborn, the Queen of Catholic Blogging and my own inspiration in blogging about a mixture of Important Issues and everyday life in an always interesting way, is in the process of transferring to a new blog. I still check Amy's blog almost every day, and while I sometimes am irritated by her treatment of LGBTQ issues (Amy's dismissive "whatever" comment about the gay couple who write the HBO show Big Love was especially annoying recently), I still love her to pieces. The new title is Charlotte Was Both, an allusion to Charlotte's Web I will leave you to find on your own. Alas, Amy mentions that she chose this title and wanted "no allusive Latin" in the blog title, which made me blush and despair that anyone reads this blog!

Bonus points to any of you familiar with Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope, from whence the title of my blog comes. A must-read for any Anglicans, especially those of us who enjoy taking ourselves too seriously!

Manchester

Went to a meeting in Manchester in the north of England yesterday, it was a great treat and gave me a taste for train travel a bit, so I might pop off on further journeys. The August Bank Holiday is coming up, a 4 day weekend that will give me lots of travel opportunities.

British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Harrods

Busy weekend, in sunny temperatures that bordered on hot. Went to all of the above and snapped piles of photos, but alas, have not developed any and may not until I return home. You can judge my photpgraphy skills later!

"Becoming Jane" Film Out Today

The reviews are so-so, but you should go see this dramatisation of Jane Austen's life and then report here how you like it. It came out in the UK in March but apparently is just this weekend out in America.

Church House Book Shop

After considerable effort to meet this place's limited operating hours (basically Monday-Friday 9-5, with a precious extra hour on Thursdays), I finally succeeded in gaining entrance. Not quite what I expected--like any religious goods shop I suppose they must cater to plenty of lowest common denominators with lots of jokey books and plastic jimjaws. Perhaps I had puffed up the official book shop of the Church of England a little too much. My biggest surprise was that there were almost as many Roman Catholic items for sale as Anglican, which cheered me to think the my long education was still of much use in the Anglican theological world! I did buy two very interesting books unavailable stateside--The Life and Work of a Priest by the Bishop of Oxford, and Anglican Spiritual Direction by a canon of St. Paul's. Book reviews sure to follow.

"The Courage to Steady Our Gaze"

From a collect at St. Paul's this morning, "that with the Virgin Mary we may have the courage to steady our gaze at the poverty of the world." I am consistently finding sources for entire sermons in a single line of a single collect at St. Paul's. Reminds me of something we often discuss at school as part of the mission of social work, that part of the job of the social worker is to "sit with the pain" we find (thank you, Professor Robyn Golden!). Our self-protective instincts have to be overcome for ministry and service really to take place.