Category: Baptist History Tours

Execution Sites (#5)

by Debra Conley

Everyone has heard of Bloody Mary (Tudor) but may not know the history which earned her this nickname. After her half brother Edward VI’s death, the throne of England passed to her. She fervently set out to restore Catholicism to England, requiring death to all who opposed her. We visit one of the locations of many martyrs executed under her reign, Smithfield, a small garden set apart by a stone monument marking the spot of over 300 executions. Across the street is a memorial to William Wallace, the Scot who died for his country and whose ashes were scattered to the four corners of Britain. Close by is St. Mary Woolnoth Church where John Newton finished his pastoral career, St. Mary LeBow Church, known for its beautiful interior arches designed by Christopher Wren, and Christ’s Church Greyfriars, the church of the great commentator and preacher, Richard Baxter.

We also pass the Clink Prison, where many religious prisoners were held “in the Clink” until their execution at Smithfield. Just beyond the prison is Southwark Cathedral. The choir nave, the oldest part of the building, was the location for the trials of Protestant martyrs during the reign of Bloody Mary.

It was also at the Tabard Inn (which no longer stands) in this Southwark neighborhood that Geoffrey Chaucer began his journey of the Canterbury Tales. The Cathedral itself is one of the most charming of the smaller churches we see.

Returning toward our point of origin, we pass The Strand, an impressive street of original buildings leading to Westminster. Here is the home of lexicographer and poet Samuel Johnson, and St. Dunstan in the West, a church often used for lectures by William Tyndale and John Donne. Towards the end of The Strand is the Palace Hotel resting on the site of the original Exeter Hall where Charles Spurgeon preached until his own church was completed. We end our morning at Victoria Station, a bustling hub for many rail and Underground connections. Within the station are a connected hotel and a small shopping center with several restaurants. Try one of the local grab and go lunches, sometimes called a Pastie, which is a hand-held meat and vegetable pie in a flaky crust. Yummy!

Cathedrals in London (#4)

by Debra Conley

The two most well-known cathedrals in London are St. Paul’s and Westminster. As an Abbey, a monastery for the monks to live and train in, Westminster’s history dates back to the first millennium. King Edward, who built the church addition, died 16 years before its completion in 1065. But it was Harold, the Saxon king, and William the Conqueror, who both chose Westminster for their coronations (1066 A.D.) that sealed its fame as the beginning place for all future sovereigns. From that time forward, most kings, queens, and notables have sought to be buried there also. Besides hundreds of royalty and clergy in a total of over 3000 tombs, you can see the vaults of Geoffrey Chaucer, T.S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll, John Milton, and George Frederick Handel among the 118 literary figures buried there.

It was Henry VIII (Tudor), desiring to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, who broke from the Catholic Church when it would not grant his divorce and began his own church, the Church of England. His two daughters, Mary (Bloody Mary) who was born to Catherine, and Elizabeth I, born to his second wife Anne Boleyn, fought over the throne. Ironically, they are buried one on top of the other in the same tomb at Westminster.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is England’s national church and the masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren. A combination of Anglican and Episcopalian services centered around the Book of Common Prayer take place weekly in this massive structure. The Nave (the center hall) is open for visitors to enjoy the music and messages each Sunday. Reverence is expected and commanded by ushers for those not obliging. There are tombs, but nothing to match the scope of Westminster. You can enjoy lunch in the Crypt Café, of course down in the cellar.

A common phrase, robbing Peter to pay Paul, became popular during the reign of Edward VI when England’s government “borrowed” part of the income belonging to St. Peter’s Chapel (housed in Westminster) to pay for needed maintenance on St. Paul’s (Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations; 141:27).

Bunhill Fields (#3)

by Debra Conley

During our three full days in London we squeeze in a trip to Bunhill Fields, originally just an open field on the outskirts of town where religious dissenters were dumped rather than receiving a proper burial place. The dissenter’s graveyard is full of great men of the faith from the last five hundred years. Among these religious giants are John Bunyan, John Gill, John Rippon, John Owens, Isaac Watts, and Susanna Wesley. The unassuming acre of land is surrounded by a diverse and noisy city unaware of the impact these lives gave the world. It’s a sad but silent commentary on the state of religion in the UK.

Directly across the street from the graves of John Bunyan and Isaac Watts stand the Chapel, home, and museum of John and Charles Wesley. The home which contains the museum holds many treasures of personal notes, music scores, and sermons by the famous brothers. Their life was quite simple, devotion to their work obviously overshadowing their personal needs. The museum also contains the original organ on which Charles Wesley composed many of his great songs. The Chapel next door is a reconstruction of the original and lectures of its history are given daily. In the small garden courtyard at the back, Wesley’s monument stands tucked under the towering buildings of modern London.

One more stop close to this area is the British Library, which houses most of the world’s great Bibles. One of the first copies of the great English translation known as the King James Bible is displayed along with an original Gutenberg Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus, the Magna Charta, and many first edition Scriptures one cannot view anywhere else in the world.

Also in the Library is the Royal Stamp Collection, owned by the British Monarchy and the largest in the world. The Library receives a mint copy of every stamp ever produced worldwide. You can learn more about it at www.royal.gov.uk.

Metropolitan Tabernacle (#2)

by Debra Conley

On our second day in London we attend morning services at Metropolitan Tabernacle, the church of Charles Spurgeon. Originally formed by a group called the Tabernacle, its roots go back to 1650 when the Baptist congregations were banned from meeting and secretly gathered in homes. Great Pastors such as Benjamin Keach, John Gill, and John Rippon led the group through transitions into a local meeting place, New Park Street Chapel. It was here that Charles and Susannah Spurgeon were married. On our last visit to this historic place, Rick and I stood looking at the front of the current building site as the back was literally being torn down by bulldozers. In the 1850’s, crowds became so large that the congregation moved to the Surrey Gardens which also no longer exists. The current site of the Metropolitan Church was chosen because of its close proximity to the execution place of the Southwark Martyrs and a fitting foundation corner stone at the current building reads, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

Spurgeon was Pastor of Metropolitan for 38 years until his death in 1892. The current pastor, Peter Masters, has held this position since 1970. Sunday services at the church are reverent and solemn in the tradition of the reformed Baptists. Singing is done with just an organ and Dr. Masters leading the congregation. Wednesday night prayer services begin with quiet introspection and proceed with prayerful singing and devotion messages.

Getting to the Church is easy from our hotel: the Northern line goes south to the stop called Elephant & Castle. It was originally the site of a 16th century Shakespeare theater but was later converted to an inn. The façade of the inn bore a gilt likeness of a castle with elephants holding up the main columns. This section of the inn was preserved and is displayed over the nearby shopping center of the Underground stop which bears its name.

London, England (#1)

by Debra Conley

Our first day takes us to the British Museum. We jump right into the hustle and bustle of London by getting on the Tube and learning to read the very efficient directions and signs, such as the all-important one which reads, “Way Out.” Not meaning a “cool happening”, it simply is the sign to follow for the way out of the Tube and onto the street above. At the Museum, we follow Dr. Peter Master’s tour outlined in Heritage of Evidence in the British Museum. Imagine standing in front of the Nabonidus Chronicle of 556 B.C., a recent archaeological discovery which confirms the story of Daniel and Belshazzar. There are tablets from the royal Library at Ninevah which recount the Genesis record of creation (the Gilgamesh story), the Lachish Letters which are military communications chronicling the doom of Jerusalem and the Temple as told by Jeremiah, and the burial chamber and inscription of Shebna’s death as told by Isaiah in chapter 22. Sadly, the museum never mentions the Bible or the numerous artifacts which support the texts of Scripture. To cover all of Dr. Master’s book takes several hours, but the proof of Scripture covered in the museum is alone worth the trip to London. The Museum itself is one of the neo-classic structures common in London with huge imposing columns flanking its entrance into a grand corridor.

The book store inside is a good source for other materials, such as an entire book on the discovery by Napoleon’s soldiers (1799) of the Rosetta Stone and how this opened the first door for translation of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. I purchased a book there which gives a detailed description of every Tube stop. Did you know that the London Underground (Tube) dates back to the 1800’s, that many of these tube stations are still in good condition and used daily, and that the Underground was used for bomb shelters during WWII without significant damage to any of them? Kudos to those engineers!