Westminster Abbey (the Prof)

Today was our class visit to Westminster Abbey.   Westminster is something of the state-church of England.  It's where the monarchs are crowned and where many of them are buried.  I wish I could post pictures, but they aren't allowed.  Apparently, there were too many people climbing on statues, etc. for pictures and the ministers decided to restrict those things to move the focus back to prayer and reverence.  You can still do tours (though a guide has to know exactly where he can or cannot go) but no pictures.

Westminster is a combination of 13th, 14th, 15th and 18th century architecture.  That part is odd.  There doesn't seem to have been much consideration that it all needed to go together perfectly, though it isn't obvious where the breaks are either.  It's a working church but it's also a memorial to those who have served the church, the nation and the world.

The church includes the graves of many kings and queens, Samuel Johnson (first English dictionary), Charles Dickens, Tennyson, and--possibly most honored today--the grave of the unknown warrior.  Possibly the most surprising grave is that of Charles Darwin.  There are also statues and memorials to many others.  One thing that struck me as odd was the mix.  Queen Elizabeth I is buried in a side chapel.  Next to her are the bones of the two young princes murdered by Richard III (way before her time) and 2-3 people of much lesser rank who weren't even contemporaries.  It was hard to figure how things like that were decided.

We got a very special and unusual treat.  Today was the anniversary of the consecration of Edward the Confessor as a Saint in 1161.  Edward was the last Saxon king of England and was instrumental in the development of the Abbey.  His chapel is immediately behind the altar in the church and is generally not open--because the wood has become fragile.  We were able to join one of the priests for a very brief prayer service in front of Edward's grave and shrine.  Very few people get to go there.  The priest himself said he hadn't been there since the 1990s.  It was pretty cool.