Home of Erasmus, Wesley, Lewis, and the Whites (temporarily)

We arrived safely and settled into our cottage n Eynsham, a village seven miles west of Oxford. It is beautiful, with everything we could have hoped for. The abby (which anchored the village but is no longer there) was built in 1005, and once destroyed, provided the stones for many of the village homes that are there today. We are a stones throw from the village square, and next week will relocate to a house on the square, overlooking a stone church with a Norman tower (see below).



We love Eynsham, but couldn't wait to get to Oxford to re-walk our old haunts. We will have to pace ourselves. It's hard not to want to soak it all in all at once. I had forgotten how this place speaks to me. Tina asked why, and I could only think it has something to do with the combination of tradition, history and excellence. John Wesley and C.S. Lewis preached from the pulpit in St. Mary's (behind me in the picture below), and thousands of students have considered and debated the role of faith. Erasmus walked these streets and challenged students to worship God with their mind and to believe that "Bidden or unbidden, God is present." This all somehow seeps out of the thousand year old stone walls.



We got my reader's card for the Bodlein Library (University of Oxford) and if Tina will let me I hope to spend a few hours a week in the Radcliffe Camera (pictured below) where some of the theology texts are. I spent day upon day at its oak desks and deep stacks nearly two decades ago. God spoke to me then, and I pray for the same though my time there will be limited.


What has God been saying so far? The word "beloved" comes up a lot. Without the strain of ministry I have been freer to relax in God's love. Tina and I have renewed our spiritual disciplines and feel more on the same page. We are soaking in the beauty of hedges and rows, yellow gorse bushes, the Cherwell and Thames rivers, and morning light. And there is something about Oxford that is helping us respond the inviotation of Christ to worship God with our mind, as well as body, soul and strength.