Oxford may be a famous University town with one of the most amazing libraries in all the world, but that’s not what we went to see. Our walking tour with the wonderful Percival family was a mix of fact and fiction – history and famous literature.
The fiction was the amazing sights that are said to have inspired C.S. Lewis to write the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and the many sites of Oxford that were used in the filming of the Harry Potter films. Great Halls along with numerous courtyards and greens that were the setting for much of the Hogwarts action kept the kids enthralled as we walked these ancient streets.
As for the adults, we were gripped by the historical sites that saw much of the English Reformation established in the blood of Protestant martyrs. The notch in the wall of the University Church where Thomas Cranmer made his confession, the cross marked on the road where Tyndale, Latimer and later on Cranmer were burnt at the stake. Simeon struggled here as did many other great ones. Sadly this is also the place where the disastrous Oxford Tractarian movement began and today Oxford is a place where biblical Christian witness is very hard to find. Religion is everywhere but few, very few know Jesus.
Praise God that one of the oldest Churches in the city, St Ebbes which dates back to Norman times is also one of the strongest Reformed Evangelical Churches in all of England. Fact not fiction and may it always be so!
Michael
The fiction was the amazing sights that are said to have inspired C.S. Lewis to write the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and the many sites of Oxford that were used in the filming of the Harry Potter films. Great Halls along with numerous courtyards and greens that were the setting for much of the Hogwarts action kept the kids enthralled as we walked these ancient streets.
As for the adults, we were gripped by the historical sites that saw much of the English Reformation established in the blood of Protestant martyrs. The notch in the wall of the University Church where Thomas Cranmer made his confession, the cross marked on the road where Tyndale, Latimer and later on Cranmer were burnt at the stake. Simeon struggled here as did many other great ones. Sadly this is also the place where the disastrous Oxford Tractarian movement began and today Oxford is a place where biblical Christian witness is very hard to find. Religion is everywhere but few, very few know Jesus.
Praise God that one of the oldest Churches in the city, St Ebbes which dates back to Norman times is also one of the strongest Reformed Evangelical Churches in all of England. Fact not fiction and may it always be so!
Michael
Good to hear from you both again - be assured lack of comments to your blogs doesn't mean we dont enjoy reading them :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Eric!
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