Categories: uncategorized
Date: 19 November 2005 15:00:55
A quick Google reveals that places named "Gospel Oak" were often where the Gospel was read out during the "beating of the bounds" ceremonies - an annual procession round the parish boundaries.
I also found this, from "London: A History" by A. N. Wilson:
"Even as late as the 1840s the Fleet, in passing Kentish Town and Gospel Oak, was a stream in open country. The Gospel Oak was so named because preachers once spoke beneath its boughs. Tradition has it that St. Augustine himself, bringing the faith from Rome in the very late sixth century, was the first such evangelist. We do not know whether that is true, or whether he laid the altar stone of what is one of the oldest churches in England, old St. Pancras. (Some say this church, on the banks of the Fleet river, dates from as early as a.d. 313 or 314.)"
The Lay Dominicans follow the Rule of St Augustine.
Just before my first Lay Dominicans meeting, I was in church praying before Mass: "God, am I doing the right thing?" and the choir director came and announced the first hymn, "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" by the great Methodist hymn-writer, Charles Wesley. Perhaps I was being told to go back to the Methodists?
Last Sunday we had "Lord of All Hopefulness," which always makes me cry.
I can't find my hat. However, I did find the pattern, and some lovely cuddly wool, so I am currently knitting myself a new one, in two shades of grey and a dark red. And when I'm done, I shall do a matching scarf.