7/12 - New sights and sounds

What I did:

I slept in a little this morning, but got up in time to get caught up with recording observations and blogging and all that good stuff. Soon, though, it was time to head out once again. So, I grabbed a train into London and then out from there to York. The second train was actually really cool because it had free wifi. So I got to continue to update stuff and catch up with things online. Also, there was probably the most unhappy child I have ever heard in my life on the entire 2 hours of the train ride (thank goodness for headphones).

I got into York and it was very easy to find my way around. I went straight to my hotel, but passed some interesting stuff on the way that I made a note to check out later. I got to the hotel, which I quickly found out is the best hotel I have ever stayed at. It is kind of a town house style and tucked away in a row of houses. The staff (only one person I have met so far) was really friendly and my room is really cool. I don’t know why I was so excited about it all, but I was. Nice beds, plenty of room, good view, free wifi, and even complimentary biscuits with the tea (which unfortunately are already gone). And, it was only 35 pounds for the night. I would highly recommend it to anyone going to York, although I guess that is kind of what I just did.

Anyway, I was really tired, so I chilled in my room for a bit and turned on the tv. I watched a little bit of some weird Tim Allen movie having to do with kids with superpowers. It was pretty terrible, at least the part I saw, so I decided to just go walk around a little and find some dinner before going to Transcendence this evening.

By 7:30 I was walking back to York Minster to visit Transcendence. It was a really cool service, and what they call an ancient future mass. It was held throughout the minster, but mainly in a back room called the charter house. We all gathered there (a little over 100, making this by far the largest group I have visited). Apparently it is made up of people from an emerging group called Visions and the regular attendees of the minster along with many people from all over York. All of the structure of the service was very high church and traditional, complete with a censer and chanting, but the way things were done was in a much more modern way. For example, we sang what they said was possibly one of the first hymns ever written, but it was set to kind of a modern, dance beat. The rest of the service included a short sermon and some prayer stations set up throughout the minster where people could just kind of roam about. We finished with Communion and some more singing and call and response.

There was some cake afterwards and I stayed to help them tear everything down. During this time I got a cliffs notes version of some of the history of the minster, at least the parts we were walking through. I also got to go through the crypt and even sneak a peak at the treasury under the minster. It was a really cool place and by far the most impressive building I have ever seen. After putting everything away, I joined everyone at the pub and met several more people and had some more conversations about the service and its history.

All in all, a great day and I am excited to go check out York some more tomorrow.

What I learned:

Sometimes you just get really lucky with hotels.

Tim Allen is in some strange movies (and several with a sci-fi theme).

The charter house (where the service was in the minster) is actually not consecrated (or sanctified, or whatever the official terminology). I thought that was really interesting since it is part of the building. I don’t know what that means functionally, but they did say that you couldn’t have a marriage ceremony there.

York minster has been around since the 620s and has had some famous baptisms and such.
Most shops and restaurants are closed on Sundays, especially after 5. I don’t know why I hadn’t run into that problem before today.