Last Full Day in Turkey

Went to Christ Church in the morning. There were more people than I expected: about 50 expat types, few or no Turks. But then there are Turkish-speaking churches in the city (one is even Anglican). It was what I might call a high-ish low mass. No Deacon (although there is a candidate for Orders in the congregation) and a few other nit picky details mean I won't quite call it a true "High Mass" in the Anglo-Catholic sense of those words, but I'm sure my congregation back home would have found it very high. They did use plenty of incense and formal choreography and manual gestures of different kinds.

Since the organist is away right now for the summer Ian lead the hymns with his voice (which is very good). The acoustics of the church are excellent. We sang from the New English Hymnal (the same used at SMM, incidentally) and prayed from the Traditional Language Rite as contained in Common Worship 2000 (a recent Church of England liturgical revision). The sermon, given by a licensed Lay Reader, was good and the rest the service was a solid and sometime; touching affair. I always love seeing parents help their kids receive communion and light vigil candles.

Amazing to think that when Ian took the post of Chaplain to the British Consulate twenty years ago this building they have was virtually condemned. He managed to get the money together to make to make it safe, but there is still much to be done for the preservation and restoration of this historic building. Nor is just an outpost for a couple-dozen english-speaking expats and their culture: Christ Church has been an important center for refugee care for years.

Incidentally, one of the people I met today was the widow of the British Consular General (Roger Short) who was one of the twenty-five people killed in the 2003 bombing of the British Consulate here in Istanbul. It was a brutal attack that also wrecked the newly refurbished Anglican Chapel on the Consulate grounds. That has been rebuilt, but only after a fight that went all the way to the British Parliament (the powers-that-be wanted to rent the chapel out as party space to a nearby hotel). Considering the recent shooting at the U.S. Consulate and the bombings elsewhere in Istanbul, I have to say that I was feeling a bit uneasy today as I visited a dodgy part of town to visit a historic church (now a mosque with Betsy).

The caretaker at this particular mosque was actually quite friendly. He let us in and pointed out significant parts of the site with his limited English. Mostly he could just say, "Byzantine original." The church is in very sad shape, but an ongoing restoration project will hopefully correct that. As is customary here, I gave a donation for the mosque--20 Lira (about $18 CAD) which was more than the cab ride. But I want to leave a good impression and pave the way for others.

Speaking of the Consulate, we did walk by the American and British Consulates today. The American one looked like a bunker. The windows have been boarded up (to protect from snipers, I suppose) and there is a huge wall (like 20 feet) around the perimeter. Their precautions are justified, I know, but it was depressing to not even be able to see the American flag. The British Consulate had a more sophisticated set of defense-works that involved human and vehicular barriers of various sorts, yet the Union Jack was flying high enough to be seen over all the concrete and ballistic glass.

Again, I was feeling uneasy being nearby either place. But the prevailing wisdom is that the country dodged a bullet last week when the ruling party barely escaped being outlawed. If they had been outlawed riots were possible. I haven't written much about this before because I didn't want to alarm anyone, but this is certainly not the safest part of the world I've ever been!

Anyway, we saw some other monuments today and also met with the only Turkish Anglican Priest I know of. He had faced a lot of hardship here, but does not regret his choices. We had milkshakes as a Finnish cafe with his family.

Betsy's illness comes and goes. I hope it doesn't cause too much trouble on the airplane trips. In the morning we go shopping and then in the evening we fly as far as London. We'll spend the night in a hotel by Heathrow and then fly to Canada the next day.

-t