Where to start? We’ve been busy since my last post – from Wales to Oxford and now in London. On our last day there Melissa & I toured around the southeastern part of Wales along the border with England. (The Welsh are very clear that they are NOT English, in fact, if you are of English ancestry it’s better not to mention it.) We took in a castle (very impressive), but the high point was a trip to the ruins of Llanthony Priory.

We never would have known about it were it not for, Steve, the owner of the little B&B who told us about it over lunch when he discovered we were interested in “religious” sites. He said it was one of the most impressive drives in Wales. I can believe it. The priory is in a beautiful valley among the Black Mountains which can only be reached by crossing what is known as “Gospel Pass”. This is an awesome drive for us, but must have been a grueling journey for the monks from the 12th – 16th centuries. As we walked through the ruins, I was amazed at such a magnificent place being built in the middle of no where. Though not much remains, you could almost sense that this place had for hundreds of years been dedicated to the glory of God.

From Wales we travelled to Oxford, famous for its university and Lewis (both C.S. & Inspector Morse’s.) We attended the Evensong service at Christchurch Cathedral. I was struck, not only by the beauty of the building and music, but by the reality of worshipping in a service which has been used for hundreds of years. Evensong has its roots in the evening vespers & compline services of the monastic tradition, but was adapted for the Church of England by Archbishop Cramner in the mid-16th century. The next morning we went on a C.S. Lewis walking tour. Lewis arrived in Oxford in 1917 and spent most of his life there as a student, then scholar & lecturer.

We walked along the path on which Lewis and JRR Tolkien had long discussions which ultimately culminated in Lewis’ conversion in the early 1930’s. Although not a figure normally associated with “revival” as such, Lewis was an effective communicator of the Christian faith in his and subsequent generations. He also like a good pub, there were several on the tour. We stopped at the “Eagle and Child”, the regular haunt of Lewis, Tolkien & the group known as the “inklings,” but it was a hot day and as the Brits do not do air conditioning it was too warm inside to stay and eat. Oxford is a city of contrasts, you can go from the middle of a thronging crowd to a place for a quiet walk in a matter of minutes.

On Friday afternoon we took the hour-long train trip to London. We found our hotel, had dinner and took a walk in Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens before turning in. London is truly an international city. Walking the streets one hears a multitude of languages and observes people from many parts of the world. The focus today was primarily on the ministry of John Wesley who was at the forefront of the evangelical awakenings that swept across the British Isles (and the American colonies) in the mid to late 18th century. We visited Wesley Chapel which stands on the site of John Wesley’s work in London. The chapel compound includes a very good museum and the home in which he lived in the latter part of his life.

Off of his bedroom was a little room known as the “powerhouse of Methodism” where Wesley would rise and pray early each morning.

Not far away is the site of his conversion, marked by a monument in the shape of a flame. On this is inscribed his own account:

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society on Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, in Christ alone for my salvation: and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

It was this conviction of the life found in Christ alone that drove Wesley, Whitefield and others to break with convention by preaching in places and to people which the established church had largely forgotten. For this they were roundly ridiculed and criticized. But the passion which God had put on their hearts for the proclamation of gospel and the improvement of society (especially for the poor and marginalized) sparked a movement that transformed the life of a nation.