July 10: Off & on in Oxford

Another early start to catch transit to the Tube towards Paddington station again; this time to take a day trip outside London towards the historic city of Oxford. Oxford is world-renowned for its university, which dates back to the 11th century (second oldest university in the world, oldest in the English-speaking world). The university’s many faculties and buildings dominate the city landscape here.

We chose initially to travel here because this city was once the home of favourite authors C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity) and J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings). We were keen to get a taste of the places where these authors lived and came up with their famous stories.

Oxford was also featured in the 13th volume of the “Lily” series by author Nancy Rue. This series, written in the 1990s, aimed at middle school girls, features a lead character named Lily, who is very close in age to our Faith. Uncannily, Lily lives with her two parents and two brothers, has a pet dog and a large stuffed panda bear; just like Faith! Lily’s journeys of growing in faith and character are very relatable and poignant; Reid has been in tears by the end of most of the books in the series.

The 13th book has Lily’s family moving from Pennsylvania to Oxford for one year, because Lily’s dad is a C.S. Lewis scholar and has been granted a teaching residency at the university. Lily is out of sorts for a lot of the book, but finds direction through the influence of some new friends, and the inspiration found in many of Oxford’s old churches and cathedrals.

We didn’t end up going to any cathedrals in Oxford on this Sunday trip, but we did make it in time to attend the worship service of the Oxford branch of Hillsong Church. Hillsong is a very influential church based in Sydney, Australia (we traveled to the original church campus several years ago when Kenneth and Lavinia were still dating and studying there). Most of their influence comes from the prolific worship songwriting ministry; Hillsong worship music is sung in churches worldwide, including our home church of Centre Street.

The Oxford branch met in a local cinema. It was a youthful, upbeat music and message. The pastor spoke about the collective trauma we have all suffered as a result of the pandemic, and about principles we can learn from Jesus to recover and regain strength. He focused on the account of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane the night he was betrayed. While his disciples were napping, Jesus was “GAPping”. GAP = Get Away, Pray. We too need to regularly get away from the pressures of life and pray, so we can receive love and strength and perspective from God. GAP also stands for God Awareness Pause. Again, we need moments each day to pause and remember God’s goodness, faithfulness, presence. (Reminds me of the recurrent warning on the London tube and trains to "mind the gap"). The kids, in particular, seemed to appreciate the Hillsong communication approach.

The pastor invited the congregation to pick up some picnic food and gather afterwards in nearby university park. There was some tension among us about whether or not to go; Thane was ready to make some new friends, while that was pretty much the last thing Luke felt like doing. We did agree, however, that going to a park for a picnic sounded lovely. After picking up some groceries, we made our way to the park. Turns out the park was HUGE, and there was no obvious gathering of Hillsong people we could find. We did, however, find a spot in the shade to eat, not far from a particular park bench next to a lazy river.

Turns out this park bench was dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien on the occasion of what would have been his 100th birthday (had he lived that long)! The bench plaque references a couple of trees were also planted nearby, representing “Telperion and Laurelin”. In Tolkien’s elaborate imagined world, these are the two trees of Valinor, a paradise-like realm also known as the Undying Lands; the trees give light to this realm. Sitting at the riverside, It was neat to imagine Tolkien himself maybe sitting in this spot, imagining the lands and characters that would become Middle Earth.

Back to the other book inspiring this trip… One of Lily’s new friends is a peer her age who is pretty boy-crazy, and one of the book’s memorable moments has the girls (plus Lily’s tagalong younger sister Tessa) scoping out the selection of boys in a park near a shallow lazy river. The girls end up catching the eye of a slightly older boy who has access to a punting boat, the kind that involves the operator standing at one end of the boat with a long pole pushing off the riverbed to advance the craft. Hijinks occur when Tessa tries to take over punting the boat, but falls in the water, forcing Lily to jump in too when it’s clear Tessa can’t swim. They end up in some trouble with their parents, in addition to smelling of goose poop from the river water.

I’m pretty sure we visited this exact spot today, as described in the book! The lazy shallow river is called the River Cherwell, and it seemed a perfect day to find the boathouse to “hire a punt”. It might have been the lowest bar for equipment rental I’ve ever seen: no waiver required to sign, just leave your credit card as collateral with the boathouse dude, grab your pole plus some cushions and a paddle, and you’re off! All 5 of us could easily fit. It took a bit of time to each sort out the technique, but Luke ably punted the outbound journey and Thane punted the return. Faith navigated from the front of the boat, while the oldlyweds enjoyed a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon ride. And no one fell in the water, avoiding having to contend with the smell of duck or goose poop (even though the geese were Canadian).

By the time we were finished punting, it was time to walk across town back to the train station, as we needed to get back to London; Pauline and Dave had planned Sunday dinner for us. Unfortunately, this meant we really didn’t get to explore any of the sites connected to C.S. Lewis. The only one we walked past (earlier in the day) was a pub called the Eagle and Child, which apparently was a ‘watering hole’ for Lewis & Tolkien. We did, however, walk past many distinguished buildings associated with the University of Oxford, so perhaps we felt like hot & sweaty Rhodes scholars by the time we caught our train back to Paddington station.

After another 2 hours journey in transit, we made it back to Finsbury Park, to enjoy a fantastic Sunday dinner: lamb shank, roast potatoes & veg, and gooseberry meringue pie (picked fresh from gooseberry shrub in P&D’s own backyard)! Dessert was complemented by another reference from the Lily book: cookies (biscuits) called ‘Jammie Dodgers’, a type of sandwich cookie with a central cutout in the top layer to display the jam inside. They were OK, but the pie was much better.