I'll Sing On in England--A Journey to Sites of the Great British Hymns, July 17-30, 2011

Won't it be wonderful to sing "Amazing Grace" at the site where John Newton wrote it in Olney, England? Think about John Hall leading our group in singing these inspirational songs. Step back in time to view the lovely English countryside and imagine the setting where the hymns writers wrote. See their writing huts and Sabine Baring-Gould's "folly" where he wrote songs like "Onward Christian Soldiers," originally for a children's vacation Bible school. Finish the trip with two full days in London.

The tour is from July 17-30 and includes airfare, all accommodations and two meals per day except in London.

See photos of the tour route at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abidewithmejohnparker/
We can send you a brochure and itinerary.
Cost is from $4790 for double occupancy.

Feast your eyes upon the fabulous photographs taken by Paul Seawright, nationally-acclaimed Irish photographer for this project. Now on this tour we will get to take our own photos and see with our own eyes the marvelous realms that Paul photographed for this book.
Read the text as it takes you on a mental journey with the poets who wrote our favorite Christian hymns. The text is written as if you were there and now you will be! Learn the hymns stories that are behind those great creations that enhance our spiritual worship, starting from our childhood.
Shop for autographed copies by Dr. John Parker at www.abidewithmehymns.com. They can be personalized, gift-wrapped and shipped anywhere. Also available at all Christian bookstores and websites.

Be a part of the spiritual experience in July, 2011!

Perhaps you should don your favorite bonnet and dig out your nice Sunday gloves for this occasion. HIgh tea probably came about as a result of an invention in 1840 by Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, who took dinner at 8 pm and to abate her afternoon hunger, served tea with cakes, butter and jam around 4 pm. Now the time is 3-5 pm. The event can vary in formality, but is most surely an English custom and an occasion to show off one's best china. Preferably English bone china, of course. Often the tea is served with crust-less thin sandwiches of cucumber or salmon spread followed by scones with butter and jam.

Clotted cream is also a favorite and more typical of a variation, a Devon Clotted Cream Tea. The rich soil, mild climate and breeds of cattle in Devon yield this very rich clotted cream. A freshly-baked scone is essential and made from simple ingredients, butter, eggs, milk and self-rising flour just as you would expect on a country farm. A scone is in contrast to a tea cake, which has sultanas and might be toasted (never toast a scone) and fruit cake, which contains dried fruit and is often iced (never ice a scone).

To prepare the tea, you can use either a black tea or a green or oolong tea. Loose tea is preferred and should be introduced into the teapot in a meshed infuser. Boil the water for black tea, but for green or oolong, only bring the water to around 185 F. Never over-boil but stop just at the right time. Be sure to select a nice earthen "brown betty" pot and warm is with hot water, pour out and then add the water for brewing at its appropriate temperature. Infusion is 3-5 minutes. Remove the tea leaves and cover with a nice cozy to keep the pot warm. Enjoy the delicious afternoon refreshment. Now you know the true sense of the word, "refreshment."

http://www.joyofbaking.com/EnglishTeaParty.html
http://www.myhouseandgarden.com/English_Afternoon_Tea.htm
http://gouk.about.com/od/whatsoninapril/qt/Creamteafete.htm
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/393168/how_to_prepare_high_tea.html
http://broadwayhouse.com/creamtea.html
http://www.chelmsfordtea.com/howto-prepare-tea.htm
http://www.brownbettyteapot.com/

What are the best choices: think Tower of London, Hampton Court, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern. How on earth will I decide? Do you like royalty? The Tower of London and Hampton Court were both royal palaces. They are great but take a long time to see. In fact Royal Palaces is a great way to organize some time in London to your interest.

Another idea is famous art. Nothing beats the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery (arranged chronologically) that are next to each other in Trafalgar Square. You must stop at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, a favorite church to visit and with a quaint little basement lunch room!
There are also two Tate Galleries so you could pick the Tate (Pimilco) or Tate Modern at Southwark (might as well see the Globe model and the magical Southwark Market for fun food during the day).

For those who would love to see the decorative arts at the Victoria and Albert (affectionately called the V & A) it is not far from our neighborhood of Kensington at the South Kensington Tube stop. By all means, try the tube.

For those who have been to much of London already, think The Wallace Collection at Bond St or even the Sir John Sloan Museum at Holborn.

Any jaunt of the West End should begin with that marvelous view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Think of our heritage as connected with these icons of Great Britain. Big Ben, by the way, is the bell inside that tells the hour, not the tower or clock. This view over the Thames River is even more spectacular at night, should you choose to return there on your own. The original Houses of Parliament is the building where for five centures, the kings and queens lived. Evenutally it became meeting rooms for the House of Commons and the House of LOrds. The present building was built in the 1800's after a fire gutted Westminster Palace. At the head of the bridge is a statue of Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, riding in her two-horse chariot against Roman invaders.
Everyone will want to see Westminster Abbey, the two white towers that rise above our heads. Since 1066 with the crowning of William the Conquieror, the coronation ceremony of every British king or queen has taken place on the displayed Coronation Chair. There are many features worth viewing in the Abbey: the Sanctuary, built by Henry III, the Henry VII Chapel and Poet's Corner where so many famous English poets are buried, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, John Dryden, George Frideric Handel, Ben Johnson, and more. Many others have memorials, including WIlliam Shakespeare, Joseph Addison, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Caedmon, Robert Burns, George Gordon Byron, Lewis Carroll, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keble, John Milton, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, T.S. Eliott and many more. { If you care to sneak a visit to the fascinating Cabinet War Rooms used during the World War II bombings, turn left just before the walk down Whitehall and look for the rooms nestled on the guards rode along St. James's Park.)

Let us emerge from this great Abbey and proceed along Whitehall, a wide boulevard, repleat with all kinds of buildings of note. This street can be said to be the most important street in Britain. One notes in the center a cenotaph to soldiers in both World War I and II as a large white stone monument. #10 Downing Street has its entrance along this way and it houses the Prime Minister. The Ministry of Defense is followed by the restored Banqueting House on which balcony Charles I gave a short speech before he was beheaded in 1649; he was overthrown by Cromwell, although the royalty was soon restored. The Horse Guards are housed across from the Banqueting House and on the same side of the street as the Ministry of Defense. Whitehall empties into Trafalgar Square, the site of the huge columnar monument to Lord Horatio Nelson, which defeated Napoleon's French fleet off the coast of Spain at Trafalgar in 1805. Note at the base of the column the four large lions formed from metled-down enemy cannons. The National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery flank this monument, creating a vision of splendor. If you turn left in the square, you may proceed down The Mall to Buckingham Palace, featured amide St. James's Park and Green Park.

You have seen the seat of government and the most historic sites of our English culture.

Be prepared to be overwhelmed by the importance and captivating nature of many exhibits here. Things you have heard about since childhood and do not expect to still be viewable or in good condition. Let us begin with the Rosetta Stone, the key to breaking the code of hieroglyphics as the contents are in three languages: Greek, Egyptian and the ancient hieroglyphics, a pictorial language. The stone, discovered in 1799, probably dates to 196 B.C. Other exhibits in this Eghyptian area of special interest include a painted limestone statue of Nenkheftka, the red granite head from a colossal figure of a King (c. 1350 B.C.), the upper half of a colossal statue of Ramesses II of granite (1279 B.C.) and "Ginger," a naturally preserved body. The Assyrian exhibit (900-600 B.C.) includes a mini version of teh throne room of King Ashurnasirpal, the Nimrud Gallery; my personal favorite is the Royal Lion Hunts and the Lion-Hunt Room, although it is quite graphic.

The Greek exhibit (600 B.C.-A.D. 1) includes the Nereid Monument from Xanthos and a large room containing Lord Elgin's controversial acquisition of most of the marble statues from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Remains of statues from the two pediments and the relief panels (metopes) and a 56-panel frieze. Most of the heads are missing, but you have the original of the casts we have in Nashville. Nashville also has an intact and excellent model of the Parthenon. But for the real Parthenon, you must build in a trip to Athens, Greece for next time.

Home of famous bookworms and scholars. But don't be surprised if even you are drawn into original lyrics of Beatles' songs and original manuscripts of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." This is a revered and fascinating collection. First of all, it is important to see two original Biblical manuscripts that form much of those used for translations from the original languages: Codex Siniaticus and Codex Alexandrinus. Other Biblical manuscripts and early Bibles include The King James Bible of 1611, the Lindisfarne Gospels and Illuminated Manuscripts, and the Gutenberg Bible. There is a great map collection.
The next in importance are several versions of the Magna Carta of 1215, kept in its own low-illumination room for protection. Enjoy Leonardo da Vinci's notebook, parts of Beowulf (1000), Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1410), Shakespeare's original quartos, and works of Dickens, Kilpling Carroll, the Beatles and Handel's "Mesiah." A virtual reality room lets you turn the pages.
You can even get a library card like John did when we taught in London a few years ago. So after he passed the scrutiny, they gave him a library card for a year and he could check out song manuscripts and look at and feel of them for himself. He chose to look at a version of Isaac Watt's "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," which he thinks comes close ot the best hymn ever written (from the standpoint of a teacher of poetry).
You won't want to leave this library.
And you won't want to leave London or England.
But on the afternoon of Friday, June 25, we must board our American Airline flight for home in the U.S.A.
Cheerio!

I am crazy about Royal Palaces. I am thinking Hampton Court, the Tower of London, Edinburgh Castle, Balmoral, Buckingham and of course WINDSOR CASTLE! I have been to all of them and still Windsor is my favorite. So I am excited that on Wednesday, June 24 I expect to tour the castle and the state apartments!! Woo Hoo! Please join me.
There are several components of the Windsor estate: the castle with its state apartments, Queen Mary's Doll House, an art gallery, St. George's chapel and of course the marvelous acres of gardens. Not to mention several neat gift shops with royal-looking china and even tee shirts and totes.
This magnificent stone fortress has been occupied for over 900 years, making it the oldest occupied castle and it also claims to be the largest occupied castle. Just take yourself back to William the Conqueror's fortification. You might be lucky while you are standing in line to enter Queen Mary's Doll House and see the changing of the royal guards at 11:00 am. A small but impressive ceremony with pairs of guards in their red coats and giant Canadian beaver helmets.
Make your way into Queen Mary's Dolls' House with intricate furnishings of 1.12 scale and replications of every detail in the living of her early twentieth century (1923) decor. There was also a nice collection of dolls belonging to Elizabeth II and Margaret. I liked them because they reminded me of my childhood dolls--some the size of the large Madame Alexander dolls that I remembered.
Then you come into the state rooms. First the arms room. Even had the bullet that killed Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar. Very tasteful. Not redneck at all. The Waterloo Chamber banquet hall where state dinners are held. Lots of nice paintings and rugs down the halls. Most very lavish but not such an outlandish size that you cannot imagine someone living there. See the splendor of The State Apartments. Other attractions are The Queen's Ballroom, The Audience Chamber, The Round Tower, The Curfew Tower, Brunswick Tower and The East Terrace Garden
You will hear the story about the fire of 1992 which necessitated a massive restoration. You can check out the gallery with a changing exhibit of the royal collection.
Try to make it to St. George's chapel at 17:15 for evensong. We went the last time we visited the castle and were inspired and intrigued by the service. This chapel is on the way to exit and is a good last stop. It houses 10 royal tombs in addition to a worship sanctuary.
Finally exit through the King Henry VIII Gate.
Everything fit for a king and queen.

References:
http://www.royal-windsor.com/windsorcastle.htm
http://www.royal.gov.uk/Home.aspx; http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalResidences/WindsorCastle/VirtualRooms/Overview.aspx
videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjH-LH2CfBc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSL698WNS8c

This is a day we have been waiting for: quaint university town Oxford and the Cotswolds. First we take visit Lincoln College where Charles Wesley attended and where a special room has been set aside in his honor and Magdalene College, where Joseph Addison attended, writer of "The Spacious Firmament on High." There is a special path alongside the River Cherwell called "Addison's Walk," where the story goes that C.S. Lewis became a believer in Christ while walking along this path.
Now our bus will meander into the maize of tiny to small villages known as The Cotswolds. We go to Fairford to see the Keble House where John Keble, writer of "Sun of My Soul" lived. We will include the famous Bourton-on-the-Water where Benjamin Beddome lived and wrote "God is the Fountain Whence," perhaps niscient of the gentle fountains of water in this burg.

I have had several experiences with the English breakfast. It is best if someone explains it before you have it set before you or before you order it in a pub. Think heavy meal. There are some variations, but the basic eggs (often fried over easy or scrambled) with sausage links and/or boiled bacon--which looks more like ham to me, are the start. There should be toast that looks to be friend along with half a tomato and a few mushrooms that are grilled. Black pudding in a small mold is the finishing touch. Not so sure of its contents;also called blood pudding from sausage, animal blood and oats or some such. There can be beans (look like Van Camps from the can), hash-browns, or porridge or kippers. Always look for coffee or tea to complete the "full" feeling. Please come with us and SEE FOR YOURSELF!

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-english-breakfast.htm

The group leaves York in the morning for a nice drive to Oxford, a big university town. We stop at a key site today, home of John Newton, writer of "Amazing Grace," possibly the best-known and most-loved hymn across all peoples and genres. Here 230 years ago, the preacher and vicar, once in charge aboard a slave ship, wrote the most moving poetic composition imaginable. We look at the house, tour the church and museum where his works, as well as those of colleague William Cowper, writer of "God Moves in a Mysterious Way." Then we make our way to Oxford, home of mulitple fine English universities to spend two nights.

Just think. Two nights in the York area and a day to meander through the streets and visit the York minster (why not attend a Sunday worship service or daily evensong), the Shambles a walking tour of the city and visit the quaint shops. Everyone wishes they could go along the York dales to York in the shire of Yorkshire. The northern part of England. Renowned for its Roman, Viking, and Medieval heritage and wealth of attractions. Walk to the Newmarket area and shop for cheeses or other local produce. Or look for interesting gift items, like the ever-present tea. A second night in the area before shoving off for Olney the morning.

After a night in the nearby South Lake District, we will travel to Ambleside, home of Dorothy Gurney who in 30 minutes composed "O Perfect Love" for her sister's wedding, the song later chosen by a daughter of Queen Victoria and henceforth thousands of brides. We will visit Holy Trinity Church where Dorothy's father was vicar. Just driving through the Lake District is a fantasy. Dr. Parker will add stories of literary famed Wordsworth and Coleridge to add to the lore.
By contrast, we will make our way to Hebden Bridge, home of Jon Fawcett, author of "Blest Be the Tie," an old favorite of the dearness of old Christian friends. Hear the heart-wrenching story of Fawcett's dedication to this forelorn place, the plain Wainsgate Chapel and Hope Baptist Church.
We will then drive to York, the fascinating medieval, yet modern town in which area we will stay for two nights.

Today is a great journey from Bristol all the way up North to the Lake District, the most beautiful of regions in the English countryside. First we will stop in the village of Stourport where Frances Havergal lived and wrote, "Take My Life and Let It Be,' "I Bring my Sins to Thee." "Is It for Me?" "Lord, SPeak to Me," and "Let it Be." Her father was the rector at Astley Church and the church building, rectory and grave site are there. The next stop is my favorite place on the trip: Hodnet Hall where the Heber family has lived for about one thousand years. Relatives of Reginald Heber, writer of "Holy, Holy, Holy," still live there today. While the manor house is their private home, the 40+ acres of sumptuous garden is open for viewing by special arrangement. So we will spend the early afternoon looking at the gardens before alighting our coach for the travel north into the Lake District.

Start your morning by driving through the countryside to Cheddar Gorge. You might even see some mountain goats. The rock with its cleft in the famous hymn by Toplady, "Rock of Ages" inspires you as you sing with Ray Walker that uplifting spiritual song. Each July the area has a song fest to celebrate that hymn.
Then on to Bristol where John and Charles Wesley lived. You will tour the "New Room," a commodious auditorium with two pulpits, one for the preacher John and the other for the singer Charles. See the fascinating old curved wooden pews (the original ones had no backs). Museum there. Then a special event to see the home of Charles Wesley, a modest townhouse nearby.

Can you imagine meandering along the narrow countryside roads in your own coach, just feasting on the green and inviting sites first of the small private village of Broadhembry where Augustus Toplady lived? He was the vicar of the local church there and the quaint building is open to view. All those neat thatched cottages (million pound cottages)! And the neatest Red Lion Pub.
Then on to the manor house at Lewtrenchard where squireon Sabine Baring-Gould lived and worked. Sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "Now the Day is Over" with famous singer Ray Walker, who has sung on more recordings than anyone who has ever lived. After all, he started out singing with Elvis and continues to sing in concerts with his same group, The Jordanaires. Lewtrenchard Manor is now a five-star hotel. Nearby is the small estate church building where Baring-Gould was the parson. You see he was also the squire for the manor and the area. Ask about the "My Fair Lady" story.
The day will be finished off with a trip to the Torbay area to the village of Torquary where Henry Lyte lived and wrote. He was the vicar of the church there and lived at Berry Head which is not a hotel. Here he wrote the "Abide with Me," the book title, shortly before his death. Experience eventide at Berry Head.

We will arrive at Heathrow today and collect our things on our private coach and drive immediately south into the English countryside. First to Winchester College where Thomas Ken (write of the "Doxolgy") attended and on to Southampton for the night where Isaac Watts lived and wrote some of his hundreds of fine Christian hymns. Some of the well-known ones are:
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross;
Joy to the World;
Alas! And Did my Saviour Bleed
How Shall the Young Secure Their Hearts?
On God, Our Help in Ages Past
I'm Not Ashamed to Own my Lord;
We're Marching to Zion