Day 3 - Worship at St Paul's and the Docklands Museum

When I'm traveling, Sunday often passes just like any other day, but I thought it would be nice to try to attend worship at one of the cathedrals in town.  St Paul's was not too far from our lodging.  We got there a bit early and were some of the first allowed to enter and be seated, so we got a place right in the middle of the Crossing (where the nave intersects with the north and south transepts).  We had perfect view of the organist and organ console.  

The church is now an Anglican church, so it was a high church service with a full processional of clergy/worship leaders.  The bulletin had their titles, but I don't know the difference between a 'Deacon', a 'President', and the 'Rev Canon'.  They all had fancy vestments on. The gospel lesson was read in Yoruba (with the Yoruba and English translation in the bulletin).  It is a pretty language.  The sermon was given by the Canon of Racial Justice, Adeola Eleyae.  A guest choir from Norfolk Virginia sang and the organist was a post-doc who was playing for the last time during his study at the cathedral.

They welcomed all who had been baptized to take communion.  I received a wafer from the clergyman, but instead of dipping it in the wine and eating, you eat it and then drink from a communal cup.  That was a little more than I had bargained for, so I skipped the drink (as did some others).  They managed to serve several hundred people efficiently from multiple stations. 

Most of the hymns we sang I was familiar with, but it was a little tricky in a space with so much reverberation.  I enjoyed the chanting of the prayers and especially the organ postlude.  Though quite different from home, a sacred and peaceful experience.

I discretely video recorded some of the music during the service with my phone on my lap looking up at the dome, but I can't successfully load video content on the blog, so suffice it to say it was wonderful!

After the service, we went up to the top of the dome for some great city views.  I had thought it was closed on Sundays, but at the end of the service, the deacon said people could go up with a ticket.  I jumped online and grabbed one. 

It was a gray day, but you could still see quite a ways, and we didn't get rained on. 

We ate a picnic lunch on the stairs, avoiding "feeding the birds for tupence" (Mary Poppins reference).  Then we headed to the "Isle of Dogs" and the Docklands Museum.

I had never been in this part of the city before.  It's a ways from the center of the city (down the river toward the sea).  You can see from the map that its not actually an island, just the land caught in a large loop in the Thames River. The West India company excavated a HUGE canal and inland docks across the neck of the area in 1802.  They built a fortified dock space to try to cut back on theft of the goods that were coming from all over the world.

The museum is in the one remaining warehouse dating to the 1800s.  It had a well curated set of artifacts telling the history of the area and the role of global trade as part of the British Empire.  It had a whole section on the slave trade that was well done and disturbing.  It even included a part at the end for you to reflect a bit on how that section of the exhibit made you feel. It was different from US exhibits on slavery, which tend to put it in the past and not fully link it to the present.  This exhibit included art from modern
British citizens of African origin, talking about their blackness and culture within British society.  

The area was heavily bombed in WWII, facing 13 straight weeks of bombing raids at one point.  Over 23,000 vessels were converted and maintained and launched to support the war effort from these docks. The area closed as a dock for goods in the 1980s and has since been rebuilt into a trendy residential and international business hub. 

These "BBQ boats" made me laugh.  There's a small grill in the center and a small outboard motor on the side, which a suspended shade umbrella.  You just motor around the dock area and bar-b-que...

We headed to Whitechapel for some Indian food and managed to be seated just as a torrential rain storm hit.  We enjoyed our meal and then head home for the evening.