| I attended an evensong service at Westminster | | | | and Keats and imagine what it might have been like |
| Abbey. People have been worshipping at this historic | | | | to actually attend Westminster Abbey in the |
| spot in London for a thousand years. My chair was | | | | company of such literary greats. |
| beside a pillar decorated with a black marble bust of | | | | The worship hour began with the choir's soprano |
| poet and painter William Blake. It felt a little | | | | soloist singing My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord. As I |
| uncomfortable having his eyes on me as I prayed | | | | listened to her voice soar up into the rafters I |
| and sang. Blake claimed he once saw God's face in | | | | couldn't help but remember Elton John filling |
| the sky. The Creator was looking down on a tree | | | | Westminster Abbey with his song about England's |
| that had a quartet of angels happily swinging from its | | | | Rose at Lady Diana's funeral. |
| branches. Blake believed imagination was God's | | | | The service went quickly. We rose and sat and |
| greatest gift to human beings. He created his own | | | | kneeled. We said the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene |
| cast of fairly creepy mythological creatures to | | | | Creed. The rector read the story of Joshua from the |
| feature in his paintings. Blake is also the illustrator of | | | | Old Testament and then prayed for each member of |
| Dante's book about Hell. | | | | the royal family. No doubt despite their wealth and |
| Balancing the somewhat gothic, historical aura of | | | | notoriety, or perhaps because of it, they need God's |
| Blake was the real world presence of a black woman | | | | grace and guidance as much as any of us do. |
| from Jamaica who sat just in front of me. She wore | | | | I walked out of the sanctuary past the graves of |
| a very large, purple felt hat. I decided I liked her | | | | the first Queen Elizabeth and her sister, who was |
| when she lavished a warm smile on a bewildered | | | | also a queen and known fondly as Bloody Mary. The |
| looking elderly gentleman with a bushy white | | | | siblings were archenemies in life, but they rest in |
| moustache and a British accent who asked | | | | peace in Westminster Abbey beside each other for |
| permission to take the seat beside her. My admiration | | | | all eternity. |
| for her grew when she gave a disdainful sniff to the | | | | Just before I stepped out the door I looked down |
| self-important young rectory assistant who glided | | | | and found my feet firmly planted on Charles Darwin's |
| over in his grey cassock to chastise her because her | | | | tombstone. A recent issue of an American magazine |
| mobile phone started playing Amazing Grace just | | | | describes the evolution/creationism wars going on |
| before the service started. | | | | between public school boards and some Christian |
| I was somewhat envious of the young woman who | | | | churches in the United States. It seems ironic that |
| entered the cathedral after me and asked the usher | | | | the ideas of Darwin are causing such problems for |
| if she could sit in the last row of chairs which were | | | | church going folks, when he is buried in the world's |
| roped off and not for use by church goers. She said | | | | oldest and most famous church. |
| she needed to be there, apart from the rest of us, | | | | As I exited the wrought iron gates around |
| because she was claustrophobic. I suspected she just | | | | Westminster Abbey I looked at the blessing |
| wanted to be closer to the graves of Charlotte | | | | engraved on the outer wall of the church. |
| Bronte, Rudyard Kipling and D.H. Lawrence. I too | | | | To the living-grace To the dead-rest To the world- |
| would have liked to sit back there in the alcove, | | | | peace |
| which also holds the last remains of Dickens, Byron | | | | I quietly whispered- Amen. |