Church Goings on

One thing that was hard when we first came to St. Andrews was that I had no church to play at each week. Only when we first left grad school were we in a position to church shop—other than that, one or both of us has been working at a church.

All Saints

All Saints' organ

All Saints' Chapel

A friend from Wheaton told us about All Saints' Episcopal Church, which we visited our first week. Friends here insisted that we also visit Saint Andrews, Saint Andrews, which we did the next week. We enjoyed both congregations quite a bit, but have landed at All Saints'. It is what you would term "Anglo-Catholic," including chanting, thuribles, etc. Really the liturgically highest church I have ever attended.

Kate and I have joined the choir, which has been great fun. It has been since our church in Indiana, Gethsemane, that I have been singing in a choir and not playing for one. And it's lovely to have Kate joining me in doing so! The choir is small, but we do some good literature—Byrd, Stanford, S.S. Wesley, etc. And I love the chanting that we do, both Anglican and Gregorian. The organist is fabulous, too, and it's a joy to listen to and work with him. It's been a wonderful experience so far.

I also got to play for our Ascension Day service on Thursday, and then the last Sunday of Easter this morning. It was a bit stressful, but lots of fun! There's just a lot of musical bits to keep track of.

Otherwise, I've had several opportunities to play the organ for various other things around town. I played Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and the two Sundays after Easter for Holy Trinity Church of Scotland. They have one of the largest organs in town, a 60 rank Harrison and Harrison. Holy Trinity is the historic parish church of St. Andrews, first built in the 1100s. The present building was built in the 15th century, although it has been altered since then. It is where John Knox first preached, and where he preached his inflammatory sermon in 1559 which led to the stripping of the Cathedral.

Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity Organ

I also got to play for a wedding in St. Salvatore's Chapel, one of two chapels for the University. I felt a little under-dressed as one of only three men not wearing a kilt! The organ there is the largest in town, a 1970s German style tracker organ. There is evensong there every Sunday, too, which I have attended a couple of times. It's hard to talk the children into that, though. We do, once monthly, have an evensong service at All Saints', so they have attended that. The boys make it through OK :)

St. Salvatore's

St. Salvatore's Organ

I did get to play for an arts festival at St. Andrews Episcopal, too. The choir from All Saints' sang a Magnificat by one of our members. You can actually watch it here.

Saint Andrews, Saint Andrews

I also got to play at Crail Church on May 6, and will be playing at Hope Park and Martyrs parish in June. Crail Church was founded in the 12th century, and its tower was added in the 13th century. The organ (which you can see below) was actually in the dining room of a local cloth merchant's house before the church bought it. It must have been a really tall dining room!

Organ at Crail Church

Crail Church

There's not too many organists in town, and word has gotten around—I could play most weeks if I wanted to, it seems. I have really enjoyed worshiping with my family, though, so I'm not saying yes to everything. All Saints' is a lovely parish to be in, and I don't want to be gone every Sunday!

Back in St. Andrews

Several of you have asked how my writing is going, and I appreciate the interest! I came here wanting to write about family in the New Testament: Father/Son language for God, Mary as the Mother of God, and Christian Identity as sons and daughters. That remains the outline of my project, and I’ve made good progress. Two chapters on Mary are written (one focusing on the character of God as revealed in her story and one on the identity of humanity in relationship with that God), and by the end of March a third on Hebrews’ view of the family of God will be completed as well. It has been such a joy to have the time to read and write; I have about 50,000 words right now, almost half of a decent book. Even more importantly, the project is quite different (and I hope much better) because of the scholarly engagement here. I’ve presented my work to the Logos Institute (the group sponsoring me), New College at the University of Edinburgh, and a research seminar at St. Mary’s (the divinity school of St. Andrews). I’m attending two classes, one on the Atonement and one on Temple and Sabbath, as well as the weekly Logos lectures. I stayed until 10 pm the other evening vigorously discussing the nature of Biblical Theology! All that to say, different communities offer different perspectives and ask different questions, and because I have the time and headspace to do so, I’ve asked some pretty probing questions as well about my vocation and my own strengths and weaknesses for it. Those deep questions continue, and while I’ve done some writing, I still feel that I have a long way to go. So, prayers for clarity and fortitude and excellence are much appreciated!

New College, Edinburgh.

Watching the waves during the storm

To resume the family story since our return from Belgium. We arrived back in Scotland late on the night of Monday the 26th, and on Tuesday the 27th the “Beast from the East” started to move in: snow, ice, and gusting winds. If our trip had been any later, we might still be in the Brussels airport! People seemed spooked, but as Midwesterners we figured it couldn’t be too bad. We were wrong. We didn’t even venture out of the house for two days, and school was cancelled for four (even over the weekend—Wednesday through Monday)! Truly, it was a sight to see, and many native St. Andrews residents told us they’d never experienced anything like it. Several cozy days inside were really nice actually, but after day three we needed more structure. Subsequently, we had a great day of "homeschooling”; Maxson’s self-crafted curriculum was twenty items long.  The best part was the chance to do some sledding and snowman building, a winter’s activity we’d thought we’d have to forgo this year being so close to the ocean. Speaking of, Lance got some amazing views of the waves as the storm was coming up the coast.

We also enjoyed the waves on "Mothering Sunday," the UK equivalent of Mother's Day which happens in early March rather than May. I chose lunch at a local pub (which happened to have a drink named after Kindred!), zip-lining at the local park, and rock climbing at the beach. As I usually attend Wheaton's graduation on Mother's Day, it really felt like Sabbatical-like to have the whole day to enjoy!

Kate has been busy since our return as well. Inspired by the Comic Book museum, she’s creating her own comics featuring our pets back home, to her brothers' giggling delight. We’ve also had a chance to see the fruit of her hard work in the musical theatre group. They performed this week, along with a dozen other primary and secondary schools in the Lochgelly Theater. Her group from Canongate (of over 30 kids!) stayed right with the beat as they danced their hearts out to “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray. She used plenty of it too, in her sweet ‘do for the performance.

She remains good friends with her birthday twin, Izzy, and has formed a friendship with another new girl from America (Hawaii), Isabel. Maxson has been hanging out with Carlo, his bus buddy, and Kindred has now had several play dates with Thomas, a friendship that has captured the hearts of the preschool instructors, so we’ve heard. It means the world to us that our kids are not just surviving, but really connecting with friends we hope will remain penpals and skype buddies for years to come. We too have made good friends, having shared meals recently with a PhD couple who did their previous degrees at OU, a Master’s couple who come from Moody and had babysat members of St. Marks, and our pastor and his family. We've also made "Scottish" friends, through St. Mary's and the Crossfit gym Lance and I have joined. Nothing like 60 over-the-bar burpees to create bonding. We've continued to find St. Andrews a small and friendly world indeed!

Thomas and Kindred

As we look toward the end of Lent and the approach of Easter, Lance has been preparing for several organ gigs. More about those and our Easter holidays, next time!

Our First Adventure to the Continent

In light of the cheap and short trips to Europe, we hoped to see the Continent a few times while we are here. For our first adventure, since every place would offer something intriguing, we opened the airfare map and chose the cheapest ticket. The winner? Brussels, Belgium! We couldn’t think of a better way to start than to see the capital of the EU.

From Edinburgh (a lovely little airport) the flight to Brussels was just a little over an hour.

We arrived on Friday evening to our super cool Bed and Breakfast, the King Leopold II Inn.
Housed in a 1905 five-story house, our apartment included a kitchen and living area on the fifth floor
as well stairs to the attic turned into two bedrooms. The best part? The kids each had skylights over
their beds where they could see constellations as they fell asleep.

On Saturday, we took the very comfortable train to the medieval town of Bruges. It was as all the travel
books had described, a picturesque town with cobbled streets and canals. We first stopped

in the Church of Our Lady, which dates from the 13th-15th centuries. It is the tallest structure in Bruges, and the second tallest brickwork tower in the world. Inside the church is beautiful art, among it a statue of Mary and Jesus made by Michelangelo in 1504.

We then toured the town by canal, and though it was cold, we enjoyed the trip as we listened
to our trilingual guide point out the ancient features of the town. Our lunch offered great views of
the town center, but not quite equal to the views Kate and I discovered from the top of the
Belfort Tower (Yes, that tower if you’ve seen In Bruges, as Lance and I dutifully did the night before
we left). We even saw a parade coming into town, and ran down to catch some candy. While we did this,
the boys stopped in the Basilica of the Holy Blood and then saw some fabulous medieval
art in the Groeningemuseum. A trip to one of the leading chocolate stores and frittes and
waffles for dinner completed our bucket list.

On Sunday and Monday, we focused on Brussels itself. The musical instruments museum
(Maxson made sure he listened to every single musical instrument), the Belgian Chocolate Village,
and the Comic Strip Museum provided hours of learning and fun. We took a bus around the vast city
to see all the sights as we didn’t want to walk to in the cold, and had several more delicious meals.
Mannekin Pis was (no surprise) Kindred’s favorite part of the trip, and we all agreed the waffles next
to him were well worth the wait in the cold.

We returned home to St. Andrews about 1:00 am on Monday, a bit tired, but very thankful that
we had made it before Scotland was hit with a giant snowstorm for which the kids have, so far,
gotten three days of school off. The waves were also 20 feet high during the snowstorm (continuing
into the weekend!). Most of all, we are so grateful for this sweet time of discovery as a family.

We hope you enjoy our pictures and we are open to suggestions and advice for our next trip!

New Things!

We have many “new things” to report since our last post two weeks ago.

Most importantly, we’ve spent the first few days in our new house. Seven houses up the road from our previous residence (which made moving quite easy!), we now live in a semi-detached house, as Maxson has learned and taught us to say correctly. This is such a lovely home. The owners were preparing it to function as an Air B&B, so everything is pristine. New dishes, new beds, new oven (and it smelled like it!). Kate now has her own bedroom with ocean view, and we have a lovely garden and a garage.

—which we will need because we’ve also gotten a car! We decided we wanted to do more exploring around Scotland, and getting groceries one arm load at a time has become taxing. When we started to look for one, my amazingly gracious friend—the same one who invited us here—offered us the use of his car. So, at least for seven months, we will be the proud owners of a Honda Accord station wagon. In the transportation department, Lance also purchased a bike.

 

Kate and Maxson continue to enjoy school. They especially loved the Scottish afternoons when the country takes time to honor Robert Burns, the 18th century poet. They learned dances and poetry, and Lance, Kindred, and I got to see them! We were especially proud that Kate won first place for her grade in the poetry recitation contest for her rendition of “Address to the Toothache.” That evening we ate dinner at a pub downtown, the St. Andrews Brewery. Their food was the best we’ve had, and almost all of us were brave enough to try Haggis, at least in an entry-level fashion as a fried appetizer.

 

We have had several weekends to explore St. Andrews itself. With three great free museums, a nice public library, playgrounds, stellar charity shops, and, of course, the beach, we have more than enough to keep us happy. It is such a small and friendly town. We see people we know each time we walk downtown, and we are so proud of everyone (especially Kindred) for making the almost mile journey each way.

As I walked into my office at the end of this week and ran along the beach on Sunday, the thought crossed my mind, “I love this place.” We hope we can share it with many of you, in pictures or in person!

Our second full week

The King James Library.

Many thanks to those who have been praying for us this week; our best news is that we’ve found a house! Our new home, starting on February 1st, is just a few houses away on the same street (this will make moving without a car much easier!). It is a really lovely home with three bedrooms, so Kate can finally pick her own music to listen to at night. Let us know if you would like our new address!
 
My fellow Senior Research Fellow arrived this week, Kevin Diller, a philosopher from Taylor University. We had the pleasure of meeting at some Logos events in the past and at Gethsemane Episcopal Church when Lance and I taught at IWU. We look forward to getting to know he and his family better over the next few months. I also discovered the King James Library, the holdings of St. Mary’s College. It is a beautiful space, full of Bible and Theology books, and the fact that King James the VI (or I) founded it is pretty cool.

This week Kate, Maxson, and Kindred have been very into drawing, especially Maxson. They have found these videos called Art Hub for Kids that show how to make your own cartoon drawings. Kindred loves drawing superheroes and Lego guys; Kate really likes drawing cute treats; and Maxson’s goal is to draw everything (he’s gotten pretty far!).

Kate has joined a couple of clubs this week at her school! On Monday, she joined Musical Theater. She said it was pretty fun because she will learn to be a triple threat: she has to dance, sing, and act! They will do a couple of performances, and they also do something for Robert Burns day. On Thursday Kate joined GLEE club, which is a singing club. They go to competitions and do solos and duets. There are judges and they determine which GLEE is the best. They have to do a song prescribed by the judges, and they get to pick one. (Go Kate!)

The week started off pretty rough for Maxson as he was adamantly opposed to trying school lunch, with weeping and gnashing of teeth (literally). By the end of the week, however, he was trying mincemeat pie and loving it! We’ll see how they feel about haggis for lunch on Thursday of this week (for Robert Burns Day).

Kindred, it seems, has found some fellow computer enthusiasts, William and Thomas by name. They have arranged a system of taking turns with the computer in his nursery school, and it sounds like they have tried a few other games too, like cops and police (no robbers in almost crime-free St. Andrews, it seems).

At Anstruther

On Friday, we went to go see Coco at the small theater in our downtown. In its small snack shop, we got some delicious sweet and salty popcorn. We went into the third screen and were flabbergasted. The theater was a little bigger than our living room! The movie was great but sad and the popcorn and nachos were amazing! We were a little worried about theological references in the movie, but the heartwarming story provided a great springboard for good conversation! (The only bad thing was that they didn’t show the Olaf short!).

On Saturday, we took the bus to the fishing village of Anstruther. Its quaint beauty really can’t be captured in either words or pictures. We walked the pier to the lighthouse and searched for shells and seaglass on the beach. Then, we had a fantastic lunch with my Hebrews colleague David Moffitt and his lovely family. His sons, though in Jr High and High School, were very obliging to play Lego and Star Wars with our boys.

Thanks to those who have Skyped with us and emailed. We look forward to hearing how you are doing! We miss you all!