London Town, Slaves and Grace with Ben Virgo

PART 1. I was disappointed when my hostess in London informed me
she had set up a tour for us to go on. I’m not a tour-going kind
of tourist and I was sure no tour was going to show me to the
kind of places I’d want to see. “But it is the Christian Heritage
Tour” she explained, a bit hurt by my obvious lack of enthusiasm.
I bit my lip, not wanting to appear any more unappreciative than
I already had. So now I’m going to get some sappy tour of Church
architecture by a typical Anglican who will explain away the
empty churches with some cultural psycho babble. Surely the guide
won’t know much about the truly great preachers of London I would
want to know about. 


As I sat on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, best know to this
American mind for the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981,
little was I prepared for the bouncing smiling tour guide to be
another act of God’s humor upon me. Ben Virgo was his name.
Surprisingly he was not a stayed traditional Anglican at all and
proceeded to take us on a walking tour of London which turned the
day into one of the most meaningful and memorable days of my
life.


I’d like to keep telling you about it, but let me cut to the
chase. In a way I had never understood, Ben helped me see how
much of key moments in history can be tied back to London and
even to specific places in London. So in the midst of all the
questions and unrest lately here in the US, I figured I’d test
out Ben’s theory. What can we learn about racial issues from
London? What about disease and pandemics? What about God and
Church and Hurts?


So with no further adieu, Ben Virgo, Welcome to Church Hurts And
from the other side of the pond.


churchhurtsand.org