Day 2 Church and Touring Edinburgh: 9-16-2012

First, some impressions I formed of Edinburgh and the surrounding countryside:
      ·         Great buildings,
      ·         Great forms,
      ·         Beautiful Firth of Forth,
      ·         Rolling countryside A+,
      ·         Mountains and Valleys of the Borders reminded me of home,
      ·         Most of Edinburgh, while beautiful, is dirty,
      ·         Princess Street Gardens are worth the visit,
      ·         The pharmacies on the high street mostly sold cosmetics, very odd,
      ·         Kilt and cashmere shops abound here so one way or another you can get the quality of kilt you want.
      ·         Also, despise still being summer officially it was, by my standards, extremely cold in Scotland.

Back to the plot:

On Sunday I wanted to worship in church with other Presbyterians and so chose St. Cuthbert’s church at the base of the castle rock. Since services started late in the morning I decided to slip in some more sightseeing and finished the gardens and saw more of the town first.

The folk at the church were very friendly and didn’t mind that I was not formally dressed,  although I would have been more inconspicuous in a tweed jacket. The worship was pleasant although I didn’t know any of the songs.

Either I chose the wrong denomination or things have gone very wrong with Scottish Presbyterianism.

·         Issue 1:  The creed was a total mess and almost completely rewritten. Is it possible that the creed used in America in ALL the churches is now some kind of fossil?

·         Issue 2:  The Lord’s Prayer had the same problems. Neither a Protestant nor a Roman Catholic in the US would recognize most of it. The beautiful early modern English phrases have been hacked out to be replaced with unrecognizable trash.

·         Issue 3:  A woman was leading part of the service. This is a big no no, not because of any chauvinistic views you may assign me dear reader, but because there is no provision in scripture for women to lead a mixed congregation. For a church founded on Sola Scriptura this indicates a severe deviation from doctrine.

·         Issue 4:  The sermon, if it was in fact a sermon, was completely useless and lasted for only 15 minutes! The pastor (?) used no scripture illustrations in his sermon but did quote modern thinkers and exhorted us all to be nice Christians. I couldn’t leave the place fast enough.

At 1:00 I took the New Europe Tour of Edinburgh with a large group of people. Our tour guide was Ellie. The original plan was to visit the old City Hall across from Parliament Square and St. Giles Cathedral, but the Paralympics parade was coming to just that exact spot in Edinburgh at that exact time so we rerouted a bit.

Sights we saw: St. Giles Cathedral and a man dressed up like a statue of a king,

Poet’s Square, The Grass Market (I spent a lot of time near there the night before),  Cowgate which is not too surprisingly just across from the grassmarket, Greyfriars Kirk, The Scottish University for Orphans, The coffee shop JK Rowling wrote her first book at, and the Princess Street Gardens (again) before returning to the High City after a wonderful 3 hour walking tour.

There is so much detail and not nearly enough blog space to put it in. All I can do is wholeheartedly recommend this tour the next time you are in Edinburgh.

I got to Edinburgh Castle about 4:45 since I needed a few minutes to clean up and rest my feet. There I was again told and this time very rudely that I was too late. All tours apparently leave before 4:30 and I was too late even to go inside to look around for a minute. This was not made clear at 5:30 the night before. FYI, Scotland has several sights with overly rude tour guides and ticket sellers so be prepared and shower them with politeness if they are rude to you.

After supper at Subway I decided to walk down the Royal Mile towards Holyrood House. I was certain that it was too late to get in, but I did get to see a lot of the city which I missed the last time around. Edinburgh is blessed with historic sites such as John Knox’s house, old market crosses, buildings dedicated in the 1560’s, lots of little paths between and under buildings called ‘closes’ which lead to hidden courtyards. I could spend months exploring it properly.  Anyway, I walked down a very long path through the royal parkland and below the extinct volcano ‘David’s Seat’ which IMHO would have made a better site for Edinburgh as it is more majestic and has a lot more room. The park was beautiful, but I knew my limits and headed back to the hostel and returned by 7:10. Next post, the tour starts.