The Greatly Awakened TUESDAY, JULY 27

   So, I am on my way back to Boston... I'll get back about 8:30 pm, not bad since my flight leaves at 6 pm.  I spent a good part of yesterday (Monday July 26) at the British Library.  In addition to the normal incredible displays (the Magna Carta, a page in Shakespeare's handwriting, the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus, lots of other great stuff) they were having a special exhibit of old maps, especially maps as artwork.  As you can figure, I just eat that stuff up...
    In the afternoon I set out for Clapham on another mini-pilgrimage in pursuit of one of my heroes of the faith.  During the Great Awakening one of the things that happened was the awakening of a desire in the evangelized members of the British upper classes to see an increase of justice and righteousness in their culture.  A group of them gathered around Holy Trinity Church  Clapham Common in the village of Clapham (now a part of urban London).  Their most famous member was William Wilberforce (subject of the movie Amazing Grace) and though they are best known for working to end slavery in the British Empire, they also played a role in ending some of the worst abuses in child labor and prisons and other areas.
   When I found the church the stone plaque on the outside was damaged, and I wondered if the neighborhood was now so bad that people were shooting at it.  Later I had a tour from the church sexton and he explained that a bomb exploded next to the church during the London Blitz of 1940 and the damage had been left as a reminder of that terrible time.  One of the windows that was blown out was replaced with one honoring Wilberforce as well.

   This morning I took my suitcase and backpack and before heading to the airport went looking for John Wesley's (founder of Methodism and one of the 3 main leaders of the Great Awakening) house and chapel, which was about a mile from my dorm lodgings.  While walking down a main street I noticed a street market down one of the side streets, and detoured to check it out.  After having walked off my intended route I then turned to see if I could just cut directly toward my destination walking parallel to my original route.  The street I was on ended at a stone-and-wrought-iron fence, and passing through a gateway I found myself in an old graveyard.  As I started looking around I discovered I was in the old Bunhill Fields, a cemetery that had its origins in the hauling of bones from the then full St. Paul's charnel house in 1549 that created a high point on what were then open fields outside the city (a Bone-hill).  And I also spotted some very well-known names on some of the tombs:  Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe; poet William Blake; John Bunyon, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress; and Isaac Watts, prolific hymnwriter whose works include Joy to the World, Oh God Our Help in Ages Past, and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.  This was definitely one of the surprises I had hoped God would give me on my travels!

   Continuing on out of the graveyard I came to John Wesley's home and chapel—and also grave.  Once again I got a personal tour; I think the number of folks who come into these historic  but unspectacular churches is low enough that the staff are delighted to share them.  There was also a sense of symmetry—my friend Rob John is pastor of Old South Church in Newburyport, MA where Wesley's counterpart in the Great Awakening, George Whitfield, preached and is buried.  Rob gave me and MIT GCF student leaders a similar tour last August.
  Below:  Bunyan's tomb, Wesley's pulpit and house.