Visiting University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin (Among Other Things)

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of visiting one of the most famous churches in Oxford, University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin.  You may have seen it decorating postcards or on the cover of some travelogue; I was lucky enough to go inside for a real service.

As services go, it was very warm and inviting.  It was Church of England, of course, and very similar to the Church's sister branch in the United States, the Episcopal Church. We went through the liturgy (closely detailed in the bulletin, and easy for American evangelicals like us to follow along) and took communion. (In this church tradition, real wine is served, which surprised several of the people who came along with us.) Afterwards, we spoke with the interim priest, who was very eager for us to plug in with their "college ministry"—I put that in quotes because I don't really know what they call it.

On the whole, it was a beautiful service. Afterwards, we grabbed some tea and/or coffee from their refreshments table and spoke with several of the attendees.  

Perhaps the most unnerving thing about this was that the coffee table was situated on top of ancient, flat gravestones. In fact, this comprised most of the flooring in the church; the gravestones ranged in age from the early 1600s to the late 1800s.  It was odd to think that we were using items as somber as gravestones for something as pedestrian as flooring.

After we finished our coffee, we wandered around the church a little bit before setting out for lunch. At this point, I was tempted to take pictures of the church, but I decided to enjoy the moment instead.  The place felt holy, especially after attending the service, and turning it into a tourist destination felt wrong to me.

So instead, have some pictures I found on Google. They are far better than any of the ones I would have taken.

The inner hall, where prayers are held.

The view of the church from the balcony, where I sat.  Ahead, where the piano is sitting in this picture, was where the clergy stood and administered the Eucharist.

Outside, though, I had fewer restraints.  With all of the tourists around, I felt a little better taking a photo of my own:

In addition, this church courtyard opened up into a great view of the Bodleian Library.  Although I had taken pictures before, these are much better, so I'll share them with you here:

The side of the Bodleian Library, with the beautiful Hertford College to the right.

After stopping here for a few moments, we went on a quest to find something to eat.  While walking down Queen Street, I halted to take a picture of the open doorway into Queen's College, and also took a photo of St. Mary's church tower:

We ended up at a nice place called The Rose. I got the soup of the day; it was spelled Kalli Flower on the board, but I'm pretty sure it was cauliflower soup.  Either way, it was delicious, and relatively inexpensive.  Afterward, we wandered into an antique shop, where everything was pretty but also ridiculously overpriced.

The rest of the day mostly consisted of me catching up on my Greek homework, and writing these engrossing blog posts for you to read. Monday, however, was much more busy; and so wonderful for me personally that I'm going to devote an extra-long post to it.

Hint: it almost made me cry.

But you'll have to wait to find out why.