Category Archives: Quotes

Greg’s Birthday Hodgepodge

This year Wednesday Hodgepodge has landed on Greg’s Birthday. We will be celebrating simply today and more grandly on Friday in Spokane.

Our lovely hostess, Joyce, has another batch of Wednesday Hodgepodge questions mixed up for us. Thank You, Joyce!

1. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?  On a scale of 1-10 how much of a fan are you? (10 is never miss a game and 1 is I’m just here for the snacks). Who’s your team? If you’re playing along today, but live outside the US feel free to sub your feelings about futbol for the more American sport of football. 

I like college football. We have 3 graduates of the University of Washington in our family so we are always ready to cheer the Huskies on. They beat their cross state rival on Sunday at the Apple Cup. My favorite sport is soccer/futbol. I keep up with English Premier league and of course I follow the Seattle Sounders. I’m a 10 for soccer and a 5 for football.

2. What’s something you currently have a game plan for managing? 

I am trying to clean up my blog, long story. I made great headway over Labor Day Weekend while I had the time. I don’t know how long it will take but I’m committed to getting the job done. Some of the posts on my blog from the past have disappeared and I’ll be reposting the ones that are more dear to me here and there under the heading of Blog Restoration.

3. Do you like chicken wings? Hot, mild, or some other flavor? What’s a must have food for you on a tailgate menu? I know tailgating isn’t as big of a thing outside the US of A as it is inside the US of A, but you can also answer the question this way-what’s a must have food for you at a sporting event viewing party? 

I do like chicken wings with moist towelettes handy. Hot dogs/brats and beans or mac and cheese sound like something good on a tailgate sturdy paper plate! For watching Fall or winter sporting events at home a big pot of chili, cornbread and chips and salsa is good and easy.

4. Teams typically have strict playbooks they follow. What is one unwritten rule or piece of advice in your ‘life playbook’ you think everyone should know?

Just one? I wrote this quote down from J.C. Ryle this week and it serves this question well.

“We must not pretend we are wiser than God.”

And from a recent sermon by our Pastor; “We don’t practice sin, we fight it!”

5. This is the week we remember and mourn all that was lost and changed on September 11, 2001. I always include a spot for bloggers to share anything they’d like to share about 9/11. Share as much or as little as you like. 

On 9-11-2001 We were living in Kenmore, Washington. We put this flag on the side of our home that faced the street. We really didn’t know what else to do.

It was so surreal, so shocking, so disturbing and it changed our world as we know it.

I have a full post set to publish on Friday in remembrance of this day 25 years ago.

6.Insert your own random thought here. 

Back to the birthday boy. Today he is 73. I like to think he’s catching up to me but come March I’ll still be a few years ahead of him.

Photo Above from a couple years ago and photo below several years ago with our middle son.

Today, on his birthday, he is with our middle son helping him to fell trees and loading those logs into the truck for firewood. They are in the Colville National Forest. Greg has the gift of service.

Yesterday I made this treat for him. It’s his favorite. It’s my recipe in the Mennonite Girls Can Cook, Celebrations Cookbook. We will enjoy that treat today at some point.

Looking forward to visiting and reading more answers to the questions or prompts.

Anniversaries Worth Remembering

The anniversary I’m remembering here today is the 79th anniversary of my parents and oldest sister arriving from Persia to New York on September 6, 1947. I’m posting this on the 79th anniversary of the day they left Tehran, Iran on September 3, 1947.

This is the actual airplane (Skyways International) that they traveled on arriving in New York, New York. Our daughter has been researching her grandparents history and has found information and documents we have not seen before. Andrew and Katie searched the Tail Number and were able to come up with the exact plane. Below is the Entry Declaration that they found, too.

These flights were during the Itinerant Migrant air Charter era. (1947-1949)

They embarked in Tehran and disembarked in New York, New York. The last leg of the journey was from Gander, Newfoundland.

My father’s sister and her husband and two children were on the plane, too.

Here is an account of events leading up to their travel in my Pop’s words dictated in Russian to a Russian journalist several years ago. My brother-in-law worked with a friend of ours to translate it into English. Sentences in (parenthesis) are my words inserted to the narrative.

At this time in our lives, (after our sister Kathy was born in May of 1946) my parents began to cultivate closer ties with our relatives in the U.S. In so doing they asked them to sponsor our family into the U.S. Sponsoring was necessary back then. The relatives agreed. As it turned out, only the siblings who had families and my parents had emigration status. That meant that my sister’s family and mine were the only ones who could leave. My parents decided not to come with us because they did not want to further divide the family. Because my father was a spiritual leader in the Molokan church, the immigration officer at the American Consulate advised us to have our American relatives sponsor him as a pastor which would expedite the emigration process for him and the rest of the family. And so it did for they all arrived two years after we did.

We ourselves left Teheran for the United States on September 3, 1947. I will give the details of our trip because it is different than how we would travel today. Our plane was a twin engine Red Cross cargo plane. There were no seats-only benches-and who needs seat belts? Some of us sat on the benches while others laid on the floor. Because our flight altitude was relatively low, we were able to discard Kathy’s dirty diapers out the window. Opening and closing them did not affect cabin pressure. Here is our itinerary; From Teheran we flew to Cairo, Egypt, refueled and flew on to Rome, Italy. We spent the night in Rome. From Rome we flew to London. We were not allowed off the plane and only stayed for lunch. We flew to Scotland and stayed overnight. From Scotland we flew to Iceland and had lunch. From there to Greenland where we spent the night. From Greenland we flew to New York. We arrived in New York late Saturday night, September 6th. ( I think my pop had mistaken the Greenland stop since the travel papers show they flew from Newfoundland into New York.)

We were planning on taking a train from New York to Los Angeles that night, however all our money was in travelers checks made out to my brother John. Union Pacific would not take those checks. We were stuck in New York for the night. We had the name of a Russian pastor and two kind ladies from Traveler’s Aid helped us locate his church. When we arrived he was just locking the doors of the church for the night. He took my sister’s family and the three of us to a hotel which did accept our traveler’s checks. In the morning Nadia woke up and was scared to death because of the height of the room. All she saw were people the size of ants below and this frightened her.

It being Sunday, we went to this pastor’s church morning and evening. On Sunday night one family took my sister’s family and another took ours for the night. Monday morning we notified our relatives of our plight. They wired us money for the train and we were able to leave for Los Angeles. (This was September 8th) We arrived in LA on September 12, 1947.

What a long journey for them with a toddler in tow and with my mom being pregnant and knowing very little English. Mom was pregnant with my sister Vera on this journey.

This is a photo of my parents and sister Kathy after they arrived in Los Angeles.

And that my friends is just the beginning of the story of my parents and relatives settling in the U.S.A. An Anniversary worth remembering for me and my family.

This is a very small portion of my Pop’s story. The last paragraph of his longer story ends this way;

I am so thankful for the unseen hand of the Lord guiding my life. I give all the praise to Him. It is my prayer that readers of my story come to know Jesus as I have come to know Him.

Thanks be to God for leading and guiding and bringing traveling ‘angels’ along to help them with the mishaps along the way! I am grateful to God for leading my parents to the USA and even more grateful to God for saving our pop through Jesus Christ and what that means for our family for generations to come.

Prayer

A quote about prayer from John MacArthur who was Greg and my first pastor after we were married in 1974. He got his promotion to heaven July 25th of 2025. Even though we moved far away from our first church and have been active members under other pastors since 1976, we’ve continued to learn and grow from Johnny Mac’s sermons (available at Grace to You) and his books.

“Far from being merely a wish list, godly prayer is fundamentally and inescapably an act of worship. It is an expression of our praise, our unworthiness, our desire to see God’s will fulfilled, and our utter dependence on Him for all our needs. Thus, every aspect of prayer is an act of worship. That includes the petitions we make, because when we properly make our requests known to God–without anxiety, through prayer and supplication, and with thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6)–we are acknowledging His sovereignty, confessing our own total reliance on His grace and power, and looking to Him as Lord, provider, and ruler of the universe–not some kind of celestial Santa. Even when we are making requests, proper prayer is pure worship.”

The stained glass window and photo from the cellars are from Dunfermline Abbey and Palace in Scotland. The window depicts Jesus on the Mount of Olives praying the night he was betrayed with some of his Disciples sleeping nearby.

The cellars afforded Josh, Laura, Greg and me our own mini praise and worship time to our Lord God singing Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow.

The Round Church Cambridge

This will be the last post of our travel journal for our time in Cambridge from March 8th-March 14th, 2026. This post will cover Friday late afternoon and evening into Saturday March 14th.

On Friday afternoon as we made our way back to The Wilde, we noticed the Round Church was open to visitors.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, universally known as the Round Church, is one of only four surviving medieval round churches in England. Built around 1130 by the Fraternity of the Holy Sepulchre, its iconic circular design was directly modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It is currently managed by the educational charity, Christian Heritage.

This panel was such a great presentation of Christianity.

I missed seeing the images in the tiles.

The historical panels were extensive and so well done. You could spend a lot of time reading the history through the centuries.

 

This brings me to the wrap up of our Cambridge travel journal.

I loved walking in a town with Jesus Lane, All Saints Passage, Jesus Green, Trinity Lane, Trinity College, Christ College, Emmanuel College, Jesus College.

Such rich history and foundation of Christianity in the past. In the present day you wonder how many students have an inkling of all of this.

As is always the case, we came, we wandered, and in no way did we see all there is to see or learn all there is to learn. We are grateful for what we did see and what we did learn. Time will tell if we will ever return.

Our bus ticket was for 9:20 on Saturday March 14th. We were up early and had our showers and were all packed up and ready to go. I went down to the lobby to see what pastries were available to purchase to have with our coffee. The almond croissants were huge. (One would have been good to split) March 14th happens to be my birthday so the hotel manager of the morning gave us two on the house!

Our taxi got us to the National bus stop on Parkside and we were off for our 2-1/2 hour bus ride to Heathrow Airport.

We had time at the airport to enjoy a bite to eat before boarding our plane for our 11+ hour flight home. One weird thing about our boarding was that we were bused to the plane and had to climb up the stairs to board. Thinking back on that, we should have asked for assistance with our carry-ons! (Being over 70)

Woohoo! We had a window row to ourselves so we were able to stretch out our legs over the course of the flight. The attendants found out (I told them) that it was my birthday so champagne arrived almost immediately and then when we got off the plane in Seattle, a Happy Birthday announcement was made over the speakers. Arriving in Seattle, we went through customs and then waited for our short hop flight to Spokane.

In Spokane, our son was waiting to drive us home with our car decorated and stuffed with balloons to wish me a Happy Birthday. Our Grands included these sweet cards.

And that my friends, is the end of this travel story.

Life goes on and the ordinary continues and we thank God for that, too.

Cambridge the 13th of March 2026

Our travel journal is coming to an end with our last full day in Cambridge on Friday the 13th of March. First thing that morning we walked to The Locker Cafe on King St. After we arrived and ordered it became quite busy.

This day would turn out to be a blustery cold day and our coats stayed on.

We ordered the Shakshuka and it was delicious.

After breakfast we walked to the Market area of Cambridge to see if St. Edward King and Martyr church was open before their scheduled mass at 10:30. We wanted to pop in before mass started.

Along this passageway Greg spotted our first dinky door!

Some of Cambridge’s most charming architecture is tucked away at ankle level. Since 2019, an anonymous couple has been working toward their mission of “Saving the World” by installing little portals to whimsical delight throughout Cambridge.

You can see why they are easy to miss. Can you see it?

You can read about dinky doors here.

The church played a unique role in the early days of the Reformation. A group of evangelicals in Cambridge, of whom Thomas Bilney was the first, had been meeting regularly in the early 1520s. They were influenced by a fresh translation of the New Testament by Erasmus and by the ideas of Luther, and they believed passionately in the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ.

At the Christmas Midnight Mass here in 1525, Robert Barnes preached what is thought to be the first openly evangelical sermon to be preached in any church in the country, proclaiming the Christian Gospel and accusing the Church of its heresies. This event led to St. Edward’s often being called the cradle of the Reformation in England.

Other reformers preached regularly at St. Edward’s, including Hugh Latimer until he left Cambridge in 1531. Some of his sermons preached here have been preserved, and the pulpit from which the reformers preached is still in use today.

Barnes and Latimer were both put to death for their beliefs. As he comforted Nicholas Ridley at the stake in Oxford. Latimer said ‘Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.’

These windows are in honor Thomas Bilney and Hugh Latimer

To the Glory of God and to honour those from this Parish who in the years 1523 to 1525 met near by at the White Horse Inn and there sought out the principles of the English Reformation Thomas Bilney + 1531 – Robert Barnes + 1540 – Hugh Latimer + 1555 who through faith quenched the violence of fire.

Since mass was about to start we didn’t take a lot of photos or hang around for long but we were happy to put more pieces together of the history of the Reformation in England.

Making our way next to ‘Bodies in the Bookshop’ we came across this bookshop that was not open.

The wind and the cold prompted us to pop into any shop along the way that looked interesting. We were thankful that there was no rain! As it turned out the Bodies in the Bookshop would not open till noon so we made the quick decision to pop into Fitzbillies and enjoy some hot tea. Greg started to feel under the weather and a spot of tea sounded good.

We were happy to get a seat far from the front door.

Greg opted for tea and a scone but I went for the classic Afternoon Tea.

When in Rome as the saying goes…

I didn’t want to leave England without enjoying High Tea.

Earlier in the week we did partake of the famous ‘Fitzbillies Chelsea Bun’. I neglected to take a photo of them.

We enjoyed our food leisurely knowing we’d be out in the cold again.

The bookshop opened while we were having our tea so we backtracked to peruse the offerings.

We bought a used book by Elizabeth Goudge and a gift book and then started our trek back to our lodgings.

We managed to find two more dinky doors. We heard there are at least 14 of them sprinkled around town.

Before making it all the way back to our lodgings we stopped at the Round Church which was finally open when we passed by. That post I’ll save for another time.

After the Round Church Greg retired for the afternoon and evening in our aparthotel room. He was not feeling well. I ventured back out and about to see what I could see.

I wandered about taking photos.

I popped into a church, I passed along the way…

St. Ephraim Orthodox Parish

In looking up this church now that I’m home I found out the history of it.

On December 2, 2023, celebrations were held dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the parish of the Sourozh diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in honour of St. Ephraim the Syrian in Cambridge, UK.

I didn’t realize I had stepped into a Russian Orthodox Church. I learn so much after the fact! I knew it was an Orthodox church and different from other churches we have visited in the U.K.

Via Crucis Via Lucis ~The Way of the Cross, The Way of Light

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum ~ May the Peace of the Lord be always with you.

Before I joined Greg for the evening, I popped into Pizza Express and ordered a pizza to go for us to have in our room.

One more post coming up for the finale of our time in Cambridge, England. Thank you for traveling along with us.

Cambridge Off the Beaten Path

It was still Thursday March 12th as we made our haphazard way to Emmanuel College from the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge. There were a few more stops to include in our travel journal. These were not your normal tourist stops.

It was nice to see some signs of Spring arriving soon.

It was about a half a mile walk to St. Andrews Street from Trumpington.

Don’t forget to look up!

Someone called Emmanuel College the “Seedbed of the English Reformation”.

“I have set an acorn, which when it becomes an oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof.”
– Sir Walter Mildmay replying to Queen Elizabeth I on the founding of Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1584.

We were curious as to whether we could see that quote written somewhere on campus and we got some information from the porter’s office that was a wild goose chase. But while heading to the area where said quote was to be found we made another discovery.

St. Andrew’s Street Baptist Church.

The church was all locked up so we couldn’t go inside. That was a disappointment.

1855 Josiah Chater records that Charles Spurgeon came twice to preach at St Andrew’s Baptist church, 6th April and 8th August. “Agnes and I heard him and liked him very much indeed: he gave an excellent sermon.”

Charles Spurgeon is a favorite of mine and of many others as well. “The Prince of Preachers.”

On our back roads walk to our lodgings we passed the King’s Street Brewery and decided we’d return there for our dinner.

One more Fish and Chips meal in England.

This back roads walk also helped us choose where we would enjoy breakfast on Friday the 13th, our last full day in Cambridge.

Along Trumpington St. in Cambridge

Our Danube/Cambridge travel journal is creeping to it’s end. On Thursday the 12th of March we managed a variety of experiences. After our tour of Trinity College we popped into Gail’s Bakery for a fortifying treat before we continued. This was a cooler day than we had experienced so far.

After being fortified we continued along Trumpington Street. We noticed that Great St. Mary’s University Church was accessible. There was work on the church tower while we were in town and the main entrance had been sealed off most days. We decided to enter in while we could. The tower was not accessible during our short visit.

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One of the features of the church when you first walk into the building is the large East window (the stained glass window above the Altar). This was installed in 1872, and tells the story of Jesus’ birth, from the angel’s visit to Mary, to the nativity scene, to the flight into Egypt.

I was taken with the wood carvings on the ends of the pews.

Great St Mary’s has played a central role in many of England’s religious transformations. During the Reformation, sermons preached here influenced the spread of Protestant ideas, while leading figures including Hugh Latimer, Thomas Cranmer and later university preachers addressed congregations from its pulpit. 

We moved further along Trumpington and saw the open door at St. Botolph’s church and walked in.

The church is dedicated to Botolph, a seventh-century abbot in East Anglia, who is a patron saint of travelers. The church was built by the long-demolished south gate of medieval Cambridge, through which travelers from the south and west entered the town.

This church had their kneeling pads on display.

Moving along we spotted this bookstore and we would come back to it once it opened.

Pembroke College was open to visitors so we ventured in to check out their Chapel.

Nicholas Ridley was Principal of Pembroke College from 1540-1553 and then became the Bishop of Gloucester. In the Hall at Pembroke (we didn’t gain access) are portraits of Ridley and of John Bradford, a Pembroke graduate martyred in Smithfield in 1555. Bradford was overheard encouraging a younger martyr with the words:

‘Be of good comfort, brother, for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night.’

The Chapel is the first building of Christopher Wren, consecrated in 1665. Its new classical style set the fashion for other College chapels and continues to afford a fine setting for Christian worship and music.

We moved on from Pembroke and noticed Little Mary’s Lane.

Back in my thrifting days I came across a set of three watercolors from the 1980’s that I purchased from Goodwill.

It was fun to spot the inspiration of these watercolors purchased years ago.

Our last stop on Trumpington would be the Fitzwilliam Museum and I’ll leave that for another post.

Trinity College Cambridge

Working on the last few posts documenting our travels in Cambridge, England. Thursday the 12th of March we walked our feet off in between stops along the way. I booked a last minute morning tour of Trinity College for 10am to start off the sight seeing part of our day.

Our guide was a retired Porter of the college and he entertained us well.

King Henry VIII founded the College in 1546 as one of the very last acts of his life.

The open window is that of Isaac Newton’s Room while he attended Trinity.

The story of Isaac Newton and the falling apple is the famous legend behind his 1687 discovery of universal gravitation. While he wasn’t hit on the head as popular culture suggests, watching an apple fall prompted him to wonder why objects always fall straight to the ground, leading to his breakthrough. Above you’ll see the apple tree planted outside his room. Our guide said that this tree was grafted from the actual tree that led Newton to ponder the theory of gravity.

The Great Court features the iconic Clock Tower, where students attempt to run around the perimeter before the clock finishes striking 12 in the famous “Trinity Clock Challenge.”
If any of you have watched the movie, “Chariots of Fire”, you’ll remember the great court run, although a central theme it was not actually filmed at Trinity.

The College’s Great Court is famously the largest enclosed courtyard in Europe.

The Renaissance-style fountain in the center of Trinity College’s Great Court was first erected in 1602 and rebuilt in its original design in 1715. Historically supplied by a Franciscan monk conduit built in 1325, the landmark is famous for acting as a washing area for early students.

Overall, this chapel seemed to me, more a tribute to man than God.

The famous oil painting located behind the altar in the Trinity College Chapel at the University of Cambridge is St Michael binding Satan, painted in 1768 by the prominent Anglo-American artist Benjamin West.

King Charles III studied at Trinity from 1967-1970 and became the first heir apparent to earn a university degree when he graduated in 1970. Trinity College, Cambridge, has produced about 34  Nobel laureates, the highest number of any Oxford or Cambridge college.

 Trinity was the academic home to Sir Isaac Newton, who lived and worked there for decades, as well as legendary figures like Francis Bacon, Bertrand Russell, and Tennyson.

One of my favorites from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, King Arthur, on his deathbed voices to his friend some profound thoughts on prayer;

” Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.”

I’ve come to learn that Trinity had a scholar that I would most be honored to know, Thomas Bilney.

Thomas Bilney first found forgiveness through a translation of the Bible done by Erasmus. As Thomas grew in faith, he studied the writings of William Tyndale, and Thomas spoke out every chance he got—He preached that every man had a right to read the Scriptures in his own language. In 1531, Thomas was burned at the stake.

Thomas Bilney: the forgotten hero of the English Reformation.  

Thomas Bilney: The Flame Shall Not Kindle Upon Thee

Bilney Day in Norfolk

I learn as much as I can before we travel to a new part of the world. It is more of a general overview with thoughts about what we should see and do. Once we visit the sights and we come home, I learn even more while working on our Travel Journal.

There is always more to learn about any given college or historical site but this is all I’m sharing today. I was happy to have had this tour to start out our day of this and that in Cambridge.

Thank you for traveling along with us as I journal our traveling days.

Cambridge Dinner and Evensong

Another journal entry for our time in Cambridge in March of 2026. This one will be for the evenings of March 11th and a back track to the evening of March 10th.

After our train ride back from Ely we hailed a taxi to drive us back to our lodgings. We freshened up and relaxed for a while but soon determined we were hungry and set out to find the likely spot for dinner.

The Cambridge Chop House looked good and we managed to get seated without a reservation.

The views of King’s College were a nice added treat.

A lamb chop for me and short ribs for Greg.

We shared sticky toffee pudding for dessert. This was a top notch and very satisfying meal.

It slipped my journal posting radar about our Tuesday evening March 10th Evensong at St. John’s College. St. John’s College was closed to visitors the whole time we were in Cambridge but they did have Evensong that the public could enjoy. We were so happy to be able to attend it in the college chapel and get a little view into some of the architecture and history.

Evensong is a musical form of evening prayer, most familiar in the Anglican and Episcopal traditions. It’s typically held in cathedrals, collegiate chapels, and parish churches, often at the close of the day. Unlike many other church services, much of Evensong is sung by a choir, accompanied by an organ, with the congregation usually participating through silent reflection or by joining in a few responses and hymns. The primary purpose of Evensong is to offer thanks for the day that is past, to seek spiritual peace for the evening ahead, and to provide attendees with a space for contemplation through beautiful music and scripture. 

It has been a wonderful way for us to end a day of sightseeing in our travels to attend Evensong.

Where we were seated to enjoy Evensong I was able to see some of the floor tiles in the transept/crossing section of the chapel.

Moses and the burning bush.

Abel and his offering to God.

While waiting in the narthex of the chapel, I was thrilled to see the following tribute.

Greg and I have read about William Wilberforce and seen tributes to him in different parts of England. His book, Real Christianity, is a book I can recommend. I have the revised and updated version by Bob Beltz.

Wilborforce and Thomas Clarkson both members of St. John’s College were honored for their prominent role in passing of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade 1807.

1776 & 1779 William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson begin their studies at St John’s. Joining forces in 1787, they will spend the rest of their lives leading the campaign to abolish the slave trade and slavery.

“Britain’s abolition of its slave trade and then colonial slavery is the most dramatic example in human history of moral convictions overcoming national self-interest.” David Brian Davis

While we were in Oxford at Christ Church College in 2022 we saw a tribute to one of Wilberforce’s sons.

The plaque on the left reads Culham College, Founded by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, to prepare school teachers to serve children within the Diocese of Oxford and well beyond its borders. 1852-1979

Samuel Wilberforce, FRS was an English bishop in the Church of England, and the third son of William Wilberforce. Known as “Soapy Sam”, Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his day. He is now best remembered for his opposition to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution at a debate in 1860.

We also read an extensive plaque in his honor in the north transept of Westminster Abbey when we visited in 2003.

William Wilberforce is buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey in London, England.
He was laid to rest on August 3, 1833, following a major state funeral. He is buried next to his close friend and former British Prime Minister, William Pitt.

Wilberforce was a member of parliament from Yorkshire. When we were visiting the Yorkminster in 2023 I spotted a plaque dedicated to him at the entrance to the gift shop.

You can read more about Wilberforce at the following link;

William Wilberforce

I’ll leave this post with a couple quotes from Real Christianity.

The Bible is one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity. It tells us of the greatest gift that men and women have longed for through-out the ages and of which the prophets spoke about for centuries. When Jesus finally came, His arrival was hailed by the angelic host with the exclamation, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14). How can you measure the value of the good news of Christ? It is spoken of in the Bible as light in the darkness, freedom from slavery and life from death. Look at how much the Early Church valued the message. They received it with great joy and overflowing gratitude.

Surely all these things should help us come to terms with the inexpressible value of true faith. The greatest gift of God is often either rejected outright or treated as if it is of little worth. But if we really began to study the Bible, we would be impressed with the proper value of the gift.”

Inside Ely Cathedral

As previously mentioned, this continues our travel journal for Wednesday March 11 when we took a short train ride from Cambridge to Ely to visit the cathedral. These photos are numerous and are from the inside of Ely Cathedral.

The entrance was through those amazing doors!

Ely Cathedral has origins dating back to AD 673 when St Etheldreda built an Abbey Church. The present building dates back to 1083, and was granted Cathedral status in 1109.

 

Installed as part of the Victorian restoration, the incredible Nave Ceiling was the work of two artists.

Henry Styleman Le Strange painted the first six panels (counting from the west), and Thomas Gambier Parry painted the last six – you can observe a change of style between the sixth and seventh panels.

The ceiling tells the story of the ancestry of Jesus, beginning with Adam (panel 1) and continuing through Abraham (panel 4), David (panel 8) and Mary (panels 9 and 10).

It is almost impossible not to look up when you visit a cathedral. I liked this ceiling section with all the angels looking down. Reminded me of 1 Peter 1:12

“It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”

Looking into the Quire.

These ornate organ pipes were fascinating to me.

The jewel of Ely’s Crown and acknowledged as one of the wonders of the Medieval world is the Octagan.

You can read more about the Octagon here.

That is not a missing panel but a door opening.

Our guide gave us important details about this doorway and I found more information here. They call this the Prior’s door (c.1135). A Romanesque carved doorway.

The Christ figure is contained within a mandorla – an almond shape traditionally used to frame images of the transcendent. Here Christ’s feet cross the boundary of the mandorla, stepping towards mankind.

 Two human heads with pronounced eyes just below the tympanum watch those passing through the door into the church and symbolically entering heaven.

From the link; Like the rest of the building, the deeply carved doorway is sculpted in extremely hard Barnack limestone. It has a tympanum – a half-moon shape at the top – which would originally have been brightly painted. It shows an unusual clean-shaven Christ sitting in judgement on the peoples of the earth. One hand is raised in blessing, the other holds the Book of Judgement from Revelation.

Processional Way (below) was built to join the Cathedral and the Lady Chapel.

We were now entering the Lady Chapel, the largest Lady Chapel attached to any British Cathedral. I copied the following from Ely Cathedral’s Website.

The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries saw the rise of the cult of the Virgin Mary, and chapels in her honour were added to many churches and cathedrals, including Ely.

All this was destroyed in the sixteenth century during the Reformation, which, in keeping with Puritan convictions, rejected all forms of religious decoration. The scars of this deformation are highly visible today. Traces of coloured paint can still be seen, and fragments of the glass survive in the central window on the south side. The exquisite figures in the lower niches have been defaced and above are the empty pedestals where the statues stood.

Walking back into the main sections of the Cathedral.

This narrow spiraling stone staircase leads to the organ. Hopefully the organist was slim.

 

The Quire

So much history and so much to see and take in. I’ve shared enough or maybe too much here today and it would take a few more visits to absorb more.

This was a very long photo journal of the interior of Ely Cathedral. I will save the stained glass museum housed in an upper section of the cathedral for another day.