The London Temple is located about 5 miles from London Gatwick Airport and when we first arrived here, it seemed like there were jets flying overhead all the time. With time, we hardly notice the planes anymore but while walking early in the morning, we see them approaching the airport regularly and they fly surprisingly low. Interestingly enough, the London Temple is constructed with sufficient sound insulation that you never hear any of the outside noises within.
One of the hundreds of planes that flies over the London Temple each day. The Temple is sufficiently sound-proofed that you never hear the jets as the roar overhead.
Another jet flying over the Temple.
On Monday, August 6, we went to Windsor Castle, which is 43 miles northwest of the London Temple and only about 15 miles from the Addlestone Ward building where we attend weekly church meetings. Windsor Castle is said to be the longest occupied royal castle in the world and has been the home of the United Kingdom monarchy since the 11th century. It is currently used by Queen Elizabeth II as her weekend residence.
When the sovereign (currently Queen Elizabeth II) is at Windsor Castle, the Royal Standard, the top flag shown above, flies from the Round Tower mast. When she is not there, the Union Flag, the bottom flag shown above.
As a side-note, in the Royal Standard, the lion symbolizes the sovereign because it represents courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valor, because historically it has been regarded as the "king of beasts". The three lions (also called passant guardant lions) on two quadrants represented King Richard I's (the lion-hearted) principal three positions as King of the English, Duke of the Normans (in France), and Duke of the Aquitanians (in France) in the 11th century. The single rampant lion symbolizes the Judeo-Christian Lion of Judah (Revelations 5:5), a representation of Christ. The Celtic harp quadrant is symbolic of Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
The Union Flag (or sometimes called the Union Jack represents the Union of England, Scotland and Ireland as a combination of the red Cross of St George which represents England and the Blue Cross (an X-shaped cross) of St Andrew represents Scotland and the red saltire (X-shaped cross) of St. Patrick represents Ireland.
The small flagpole tower atop the round tower. As you can see, on this day the Union Flag is flying which indicates that Queen Elizabeth II is not at Windsor Castle today.
Another view of the flagpole atop the round tower from outside the castle wall. Windsor castle is only about 6 miles from London's Heathrow airport and you can see a jetliner in the upper right-hand corner of the picture.
Below is a layout of the castle complex with a picture of the complex from the air. These are not our own but taken from other sources.
The layout of Windsor Castle: A: The Round Tower, B: The Upper Ward, The Quadrangle, C: The State Apartments, D: Private Apartments, E: South Wing, F: Lower Ward, G: St George's Chapel, H: Horseshoe Cloister, K: King Henry VIII Gate, L: The Long Walk, M: Norman Gate, N: North Terrace, O: Edward III Tower, T: The Curfew Tower
A picture of Windsor Castle from the air so you can see all elements simultaneously.
Sister Burkinshaw in front of the King Edward III Tower which is the entrance to Windsor Castle (which is really a complex of several buildings and not just one castle). King Edward III (1312-1377) was a very successful English Monarch and made St. George the patron saint of England and modeling the chivalrous legend of King Arthur, established the Order of the Garter which is based within the St. George chapel within Windsor Castle.
St. George's Chapel in the center from the top of the Round Tower.
Sister Burkinshaw in front of St. George's Chapel listening to the audio tour.
The interior of St George's Chapel with the stunning gothic ceiling. It was here that the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex took place in May 2018. (Supposedly the castle has been very popular since the wedding.)
This is the symbol of the Most Noble Order of the Garter established by King Edward III in an effort to model King Arthur and the Round Table. The name derived from an incident where the young Joan of Kent, Countess of Salisbury – allegedly the king's favorite at the time – accidentally dropped her garter at a ball at Calais. King Edward responded to the ensuing crowd ridicule by tying the garter around his own knee with the words "honi soit qui mal y pense" or "shame on him who thinks ill of it." So began this society of chivalry.
Here in the Choir of St George's Chapel, for each of the current 24 members of the Order of the Garter, known as Knights of the Garter, the member's sword is placed below a helm which is decorated with a mantling and topped by a crown. Above this, a member's banner with their coat of arms is flown. A Garter stall plate, a small elaborately enameled plate of brass, is affixed to the back of the stall displaying its member's name and arms with other inscriptions. On a member's death, the sword, helm, mantling, crest, coronet or crown, and banner are removed but the plate remains as a memorial to the deceased.
An example of a Garter stall plate is that of George Cadogan, 5th Earl Cadogan, Arms: Quarterly 1 & 2: Gules, a lion rampant reguardant or (Cadogan); 2 & 3: Argent, three boar's heads couped sable. Crest: Out of a ducal coronet or a dragon's head.
Many notable English monarchs are buried here in St. Georges chapel and the above is the marker for King Henry VIII and his wife Jane Seymour.
The State Apartments are a sequence of rooms forming the centrepiece of the Castle. Charles II set out to rival his to the Palace at Versailles France and his cousin, Louis XIV. In the 17th century he modernized the Castle’s interiors, which became the most ornate State Apartments in England. They are furnished with some of the finest works of art from the Royal Collection, including paintings by Holbein, Van Dyck and Rubens. Many of the works of art are still in the historic settings for which they were first collected or commissioned by the kings and queens who have lived at Windsor. They are very impressive.
The Kings Bedchamber. The colors (green and purple) were selected from when Napoleon visited Windsor for a state visit in 1855.
The Queen's Drawing Room. Note King Henry VIII just left of the fireplace.
The Waterloo Room celebrating the defeat of Napoleon by the First Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, is particularly ornate.
The Royal Ballroom can be converted to a dining area with space for 600+ guests. Note the armor along the walls.
From the top of the Round Tower, we took a picture of "The Long Walk", a private road to the Castle where the Queen likes to walk her dogs.
The small building left of center is the Royal Mausoleum where several contemporary rulers and their family members are buried including Queen Elizabeth II's parents.
Looking directly down from the top of the Round Tower, you can see the cannons. They are now for decoration since they are currently aimed at the Queens living quarters! :-)
This is The Quadrangle (or upper ward) of Windsor Castle with the South Wing on the right and the private apartments, where the monarch and family live, on the left. Parked in front the day of our tour were eight Rolls Royce's which were used that day by a charitable foundation who had brought a group of terminally ill children to visit Windsor Castle.
The city of Windsor with the Thames River in the center and in the upper right is the Chapel of Eaton College. Eton College was founded by King Henry VI in 1441 as a charity school to provide free education to 74 poor boys who would then go on to King's College, Cambridge. Today it is an exclusive full boarding school with 1,300 pupils, ages 13 to 18 where tuition is £12,910 per term, with three terms per academic year or $50K/yr.
We ended our Windsor castle tour having lunch with Brother and Sister McQuivey (Washington D.C. -- who also served with Uncle Ed and Aunt Louise in the DC temple when they were temple missionaries there and remember them well.) The number of missionaries wanting to go on the Windsor castle tour exceeded the van capacity so we volunteered to drive and the McQuivey's came with us.
Our good friends, Clyde and Teri Page, are completing their mission at the end of this month and so another good friend, Pam Lunn who is the organist for the Addlestone Ward where we attend church on Sundays, invited us for lunch at a very fun restaurant not too far from the Temple that we didn't even know about, the Red Barn! The food was great and the company even better!!
Lunch at the Red Barn with Sister Burkinshaw, Elder Clyde and Sister Teri Page (South Jordan, UT) and Pamela Lunn (originally from Edinburgh, Scotland) our dear friend and organist in the Addlestone Ward. Pam teaches piano lessons to young pianists.
We had the opportunity again this week to work in the Baptistry as coordinators. The new mission president is allowing the missionaries to bring new converts (first week or two of baptism) to the temple and when they do to participate in baptizing. On Friday we had two recent convert sisters come, one with a set of Elders and one with a set of Sisters from different parts of the mission, who were both originally from Iran and raised in the Muslim faith. They had a wonderful experience together and we are sure the Lord had a hand in orchestrating the day. We hope they will come back several more times to do baptisms and at their year mark come for their endowments. It brought to mind 1 Nephi 22:12 "....and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Savior and their Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel." There is no better place to come to know Jesus Christ than in the temple.One more testimony that the Lord is preparing people so that doors may be opened to missionary work and to temple blessings.
There is an excellent article in the April 2018 Ensign titled "Understanding Islam". The last three paragraphs of the article read:
"While Latter-day Saints and Muslims obviously differ on important matters—notably the divinity of Jesus Christ, His role as Savior, and the calling of modern prophets—we have many things in common. We both believe, for example, that we are morally accountable before God, that we should pursue both personal righteousness and a good and just society, and that we will be resurrected and brought before God for judgment.
Both Muslims and Latter-day Saints believe in the vital importance of strong families and in the divine command to help the poor and needy and that we demonstrate our faith through acts of discipleship. There seems no reason why Latter-day Saints and Muslims cannot do so alongside one another and even, when opportunities present themselves, by cooperating together in communities where, more and more, we find ourselves neighbors in an increasingly secular world. Together, we can demonstrate that religious faith can be a powerful force for good and not merely a source of strife and even violence, as some critics argue.
The Qur’an itself suggests a way of living peacefully together despite our differences: “If God had willed, he could have made you a single community. But he desired to test you in what he has given you. So, compete with one another in good deeds. You will all return to God, and he will inform you regarding the things wherein you used to disagree.”
We love the opportunity do the Lord's work and see His hand in the work,
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