She was right.
When I arrived at church this morning, I was warned by one of the ladies handing out programs that it would be an unusual day. Today was the Exeter Civic Service, held at Mint Methodist Church. As she put it, it was an event of pomp and high ceremony. She was understating things.
The service began with the procession of the Lord Mayor of Exeter and his party from the Guildhall to the Mint. Amanda got lots of nice pictures of this. She had to be at Build-a-Bear before church ended, so she got a ringside seat for the procession. The Lord Mayor, Deputy Lord Mayor, and the rest of the party were all dressed in their full official regalia, and, as it was a state occasion, by royal edict, the hat and sword presented to the city by King Henry VII in the fifteenth century preceded the Lord Mayor's party.
At the service, the significance of the hat and sword were explained. During the course of the explanation, the Lord Mayor asked what year Henry VII became King. Much to our shame, the history doctoral student that I was sitting next to and I couldn't come up with the year, although we both got the decade right (the year was 1485). I did, however, correctly answer who the previous king was (Richard III).
The sermon was given by the Lord Mayor's Chaplain. Now, I'm sure it's crossed your mind, why was the service held at Mint? Because the Lord Mayor's Chaplain is a member at the Mint. The Mint has several retried ministers in the congregation, which reportedly can make for some interesting good-natured jabs being traded among the active and former ministers involved.
Here are Amanda's myriad shots of the parade (which moved so slowly that she almost mistook it for Christmas).
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