The Journalists' Prayer

St. Bride’s Church in London’s Fleet Steet is known as the “Journalists’ Church.” The church and the area around it have a long history with writers, publishing, printing, and newspapers. But it’s history – the newspapers that once occupied the buildings of Fleet Street are long gone, absorbed into other newspaper or moved to other locations. 

British journalism grew up here for a simple reason: the first printing press with moveable type was brought to the area in 1500, and the printing (and later the newspaper business) grew up around it. But a church had occupied the site since about 500 A.D.; the current St. Bride’s was completely rebuilt in the late 1950s to restore what had been destroyed during the German Blitz of December 1940.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

 

Some Wednesday Readings

 

The Governor is Calling – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian. 

 

Why Christian Culture is Essential to Our Education – Ian Pace at The Critic Magazine.

 

Israel’s Iran Strike – and Washington’s Strategic Weakness – Niall Ferguson at The Free Press.

 

Footsteps at St. Bride's

During a recent trip to England, we took advantage of our trip coinciding with London Open House, two successive weekends where citizens and tourists alike can view many buildings usually closed to the public, or take walking tours, or get behind the scenes views of many places that are open to the public.  

One of the places we visited was St. Bride’s Church on Fleet Street, known as “the journalists’ church.” Fleet Street as the home to Britain’s big newspapers is a memory; the newspapers and the journalists moved to other parts of the city decades ago. But St. Bride’s remains, and it’s still known as the place where journalists worshipped. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest. 

Photograph: Interior of St. Bride's Fleet Street, London. 

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Murder on the Corner of Brīvības and Stabu Streets – Lawrence Bostic III at Real Clear History.

 

Liturgy and Literature in the Middle Ages – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

“All Hallows Night,” poem by Lizette Woodworth Reese – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern. 

Dancing King Stories: Fleet Street and St. Bride’s Church

Fleet Street in London has been long associated with newspapers and journalists. But it’s been a long time since any newspapers were actually located there, since all moved to other part of the metropolitan area. In the fall of 2017, I walked Fleet Street and some of the side streets on a cloudy, rainy Sunday, and say only one vestige of the area’s newspaper past – fading letters on the side of a building. A few former newspaper buildings have been listed on the historic register and preserved, but no newspapers operate here today.

The area includes the Temple, still a part of the legal industry, notable buildings like St. Dunstan-in-the-West Church, the Samuel Johnson House, the Royal Courts of Justice at the western end of the street and the Old Bailey near the eastern end, and many more. On my visit that Sunday, I stopped long enough to take a photo of a lawyer’s gown and wig for sale at a shop.

The church long associated with Fleet Street, so much so that it’s still called the “journalists’ church,” is St. Bride’s. The site may be one of the oldest church sites in London, dating back to the 7^th century.    

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.