Sunday, August 27 - Worship in Person and Liverpool

 Yes, it was raining heavier than I have seen here, and it continued through the time we walked to Christ Church, during the service, and on the walk home. The small choir led the singing of hymns and other portions of the Eucharist, thank goodness,  for I recognized only one hymn tune. The sermon was short compared with those at All Saints, Pasadena, as was last week's sermon.

After a cup of tea and checking the current weather and forecast for the afternoon we decided to drive to Liverpool to visit the Maritime and zskave museums. Arriving at the docks sermed complicated to me, and as Rajkumar could find no parking he let us out to begin visiting the two museums and agreed to be in touch with Shyamala by text. The next time we saw him came when he picked us up at 4 PM. In front of the the Beatles museum was a long line. There was no line in front of the Maritime museum. Shyamala stated that all museums in Britain are free.

The Maritime and Slave museums share one building on separate floors.  We learned of the rich history of ships and Liverpool, on the torpedo attack on the Mauritania during WW1 and the British response, especially on German U boats.  Life on submarines as well as working life on ships was shown. We viewed some articles taken from the Titania ruins as well as modeling of life in the various "classes" of the passenger liners. Some lessons learned and a listing of the names of  all persons and their fate were sobering. The ship held 2,229 persons, and 701 survived. 

The Slave museum was fabulous. With statements of known leaders and photos the exhibit showed the level of skill and development of the African cultures before the Dutch and Portugese, and British,  and Americans kidnapped them to becoming slaves, believing they were primitive because they looked, dressed, and lived differently.  This was also a deeply moving experience.

We had toasties at the museum Cafe and enjoyed them outside while we enjoyed views of the Albert Docks and walking areas around water. This is certainly a great way to re-purpose the new unused dock area and buildings.

 Back in the car we drove to the very modern, circular Roman Catholic cathedral.  Like candles on a birthday cake there are several spires around the dome. Inside that area is filled with large pieces of stained glass as are the "windows" in the worship area which seats 5,000 worshipers. The altar is in the center of the worship circle. This cathedral was very different from those in IreladI visited recently. 

We walked down the steps and down hill to the Anglican cathedral. Gothic and very large it was originally planned to be larger than St. Peter's in Rome with two square towers.  When built. After 75 years labor, it had one tower. It contains the largest organ in England. On the lower level is a large chapel, where Morning and Evening Prayer are said.

We arrived back in Bolton having experienced only heavy winds, no rain. I streamed the last part to service at All Saints Pasadena  and the joined Shyamala and Rajkumar for the championship men's cricket game; the women's championship game had already been played. At the conclusion both winning teams were honored on the field. We ate a delicious supper of salmon and potatoes and cabbage and carrots and, of course, mango slices for dessert