The Old Church

When you see these carvings...

think more like this. They would have been painted in bright colours.

I believe this is Lazarus. Who else would be jumping out of his funeral bindings?

Not upside down. Fallen angel, I believe.

So, I asked the warden, who happened to be a retired diplomat who was posted to Chicago for many years, what is the significance of 1776 on this weathervane. I supposed that he had been asked this by Americans several times before. He said that he was, and that he usually feigned ignorance and said that the only thing that he could think that it would be is that Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776.

Mr Warden was a diplomat and accostomed to talking and his current position seems to allow only limited phrases about handing out the brochure. So, we had a history discussion, and if I am correct he was inferring that as an American I had a little over 200 years of history. I had to leave, as there were more people coming in, but I pondered this, as part of my interest in seeing all these things is that they are a part of my history as well. America did not pop into being, but grew from many influences, and probably the greatest influence was Britan. So, my history is his history and vice versa. I wonder how he feels about his Roman heritage?

But here is the other thing I have been thinking. That religious split, starting with the arrivals to the new world in the 17th century and extending through the 18th century is so readily apparent in the arrangement and decor of these cathedrals as compared with most American churches, Roman Catholic excluded. My Protestant ancestors wanted nothing to do with the idea that God's will is translated to the people via either the Pope or the Monarch. They wanted to divorce religion from politics. How ironic in American politics today.

KG