Ok-- so I have been traveling way too much.  In the last month for work I have been to New York (twice) and to Boston, Phoenix, London and San Jose.  Great for the frequent flier miles, but not so good for doing much other than the basics-- so no time to post anything to the blog.  My sincere apologies.

But the good news about business travel is that sometimes you get to do a little tourist activity around the edges, and that was the case on my trip to London.  I left Minneapolis at 10:00 p.m. on a Tuesday, and arrived at Heathrow at 12:30 p.m. the following Wednesday.  The trick then is to stay up until a normal bedtime (or as close to that as you can get) so that your body clock is reset.

I had meetings at our office in London, which is about a block from St. Paul's Cathedral, and the meetings finished about 4:45 p.m.  I didn't want to go back to the hotel and have to fight the urge to nap, so I decided to go to sung Vespers at St. Paul's, which started at 5:00 p.m.

It wasa beautiful liturgy, with full choir in beautiful robes and the afternoon sun comint through the stained glass windows.  Two things in particular struck me:


1. At the beginning of the service the presiding minister told the crowd that this spot where we were about to worship had been the site of continuous Christian worship for the past 1400 years.  Think about that-- since the early 600's this spot of high ground a bout three blocks from the Thames has been a place where people gather to worship the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Through invasions of all sorts, wars, rebellions, religious disputes, plague, famine, economic depression, martyrs-- the list goes on-- Christ has been continuously known and loved on this spot.  The photograph of the dome of St. Paul's showing through the clouds in a London blackout during the Blitz is one of the iconic shots of World War II.  Certainly gives you a bit of perspective on the issues currently faced by the Church; and

2. You hear a lot about Europe being "post-Christian" and maybe it is.  But you wouldn't know that from the crowd at St. Paul's for Vespers.  They had set up a couple hundred chairs in the nave of the huge Cathedral for the crowd, andthey were all full.  There was a big group standing as well.  Now I know some folks were just tourists there to watch what was going on (although even that tells you something about the reality that Christianity still has a pull on people).  But generally the crowd was engaged in the liturgy.  They knew when to stand or sit.  They said the prayers.  There were reverent and attentive-- I didn't hear a single cell phone.

You could see a chunk of bankers and lawyers-- St. Paul's is just down the street froom the London office of Goldman Sachs, and a couple of block from the chambers of the barristers who appear in the Royal Courts of Justice-- and a smattering of other business folks and such who were just taking 45 minutes at the end of their day to worship.  It was a pretty-powerful scene.

I also got to go to Saturday evening Mass in Phoenix (Scottsdale, actually) which was jammed, and a Tuesday evening 6:00 p.m. Mass in a neighborhood church in New York's upper east side, which was pleasantly-full.

Makes you wonder about this whole "post-Christian" thing, doesn't it?