Anyway, this post is supposed to be about Cambridge, not Oxford, but since I’ve been a bit slack with my posting of late, I’m writing about Cambridge in Oxford.
I arrived in Cambridge by train from London on a Sunday afternoon. That morning I had gone to a sung Eucharist service (or orchestral mass) at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. When I was organising my itinerary, I had planned to go to All Souls, a fantastic evangelical service near Oxford Street (where, incidentally, two years ago I had my first communion in an Anglican church – common cup and all! Well, about 10 common cups, since the congregation is massive!) but I didn’t have enough time to get there. I’d had quite a busy day on the Saturday and was too tired to pack that night, so I had to do it in the morning. So, I went to St Paul’s instead. I thought it would be a good opportunity to see the inside of the Cathedral, since I’m too cheap to pay the £8 to go in as a tourist. Also, I’m quite interested in religious ritual – perhaps because the Baptist denomination is quite short on ritual! And it was a special service – part of the City of London festival – and I thought it was rather cool to have a church service as part of the festival. I’m planning to write another post specifically about my experiences in churches here, so I won’t say too much here. Suffice it to say, it was very High Church – if they had mentioned Mary a few times, it could have been a Catholic church. The preacher even quoted St Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) in the sermon.
After the service, I had some lunch (a sandwich from good old Marks & Spencers), called my parents, went back to the apartments I’d stayed in to collect my bags and set off for Cambridge. It was quite a pleasant train ride, except that we were stuck just outside London for almost an hour. There were a bunch of French high school students in my carriage, but fortunately they weren’t too noisy. I listened to my iPod (Eskimo Joe and Evanescence, if I remember correctly) and had a nap. I arrived at Magdalene College and the porter who showed me to my room took me around the “pretty” way, which was longer but nicer than the more direct route.
My friend Erin who I caught up with in London had told me about the “approved” churches to attend in London, Cambridge and Oxford (apparently there is such a list for Sydney Anglicans!), but unfortunately I arrived too late for the evening service at St Andrew the Great, the “approved” church in Cambridge. I went to Holy Trinity instead, which surprisingly was very close to St Andrew’s. It didn’t take too long to realise that it was too charismatic to be on a Sydney Anglican list, but it was quite a nice little church. I had a chat to the minister afterwards (he kindly indulged all my questions about the liturgy and the biblical basis for praying to the Holy Spirit) and he described the church as “evangelical charismatic” (or charismatic evangelical, I can’t remember now). What was particularly striking was that the liturgy for Holy Communion was almost identical to the liturgy at St Paul’s (not surprising – the same prayer book, I guess), and it was sung, but the music was so incredibly different. At St Paul’s, the “president” would sing in a monotone and the congregation would answer (the music was set out in the order of service, which I guess is only helpful to those who can read) while at Holy Trinity, the sung liturgy was led by a girl on guitar, along with drums and keyboard, and was really upbeat. There was even a little clapping going on! It was quite astonishing. Even though the church was a little more charismatic than I am used to, I enjoyed it. I can’t say the same for the extremely Pentecostal church I went to in Oxford last Sunday, but I’ll get to that later on!
My first three full days in Cambridge were spent in the Manuscript Room of the University Library. Fortunately, the library wasn’t too far from where I was staying, and it was quite a pleasant walk through the colleges and across the river. The people in the library were all extremely friendly and helpful, and I quite enjoyed the time I spent there.
{It’s rather warm in this pub, and I’ve finished my sausages & mash and my glass of wine, so I’m going to head back to Mansfield College, where I’m staying, and sit in the garden for awhile.}
{I’m sitting at the edge of the rose garden now. I heard crunching on the gravel behind me, as though some one were walking there, but it turned out to be two scampering squirrels! That’s quite exciting for me! There are a few others around the place too. Very cute.}
Where was I? The Cambridge University Library. I didn’t find anything particularly ground-breaking for my research, but I wasn’t expecting to. It’s just fun to read this kind of stuff. I read some correspondence between Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton, and some notes William Derham wrote about Newton after he had died, about his disputes with Leibniz and Hooke, and the following:
He said there were 3 things in the Motions of the heavenly bodies, yt were plain Evidences of Omnipotence & wise Counsel. 1. That the Motion imprest upon those Globes was Lateral, or in a direction perpendicular to their Radii, not along them or parallel wth them. 2. That the motions of them tend the same way. 3. That their Orbits have all the same, or nearly the same inclination.
Apparently Derham and Newton had discussed this after Derham published his Astro-Theology, which was a demonstration of the existence and attributes of God from the evidences of the heavenly bodies.
I also came across some very interesting letters from Dr Woodward to a Mr Baker who had, it seems, been casting aspersions on the theological soundness of Woodward’s views on the impact of the Fall on the Earth and the effect of the Deluge (i.e. the flood at the time of Noah). I was amused by how polite (yet, at times, quite cutting) Woodward was to his opponent. It would be nice if people in the Young Earth Creationism/Theistic Evolution/whatever debate would be as polite to each other. Here are some examples (spelling modernised):
I am a Gentleman and have treated you as such, and whether your Treatment of me be answerable to that Character, I leave to you to judge...
I know not well what you mean when you say my Opinion of the Dissolution of the Earth is to you yet all Theory, and so it is among your Acquaintance. You were told there were in my work abundant evidences and Proofs of that Dissolution, and had an Offer made you to assert the Certainty of those Proofs if you should think fit to dispute them. And I must tell you that was the true Test, and the way to determine whether I had Truth on my Side or not... and if you will shut your eyes, and then cry out you see nothing, or can discern only Theories, I cannot help it. As to what you say about your Acquaintance, I do not think the way to find out whether I am in the right or not will be to put it to the vote, or have recourse to the Suffrages of your Acquaintance, but to Nature, to Things, and to matter of Fact; and as long as I have those on my side I shall be satisfied...
I suppose that’s enough to torture you with. I guess I can’t expect others to find it as interesting as I do...
Anyway, I managed to look at everything I wanted to in the library in just three days, so I still had three whole days left to just kick back and enjoy the Cambridge atmosphere, but I’ll leave that for the next episode...
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