Church Picnic

Sunday the church picnic followed the 9:30 a.m. English language service. The Anglican Cathedral is less than 40 yards from the gate of the British Embassy and Residence. We had been invited to hold our annual picnic on the grounds by the British Ambassador and his wife, Martin and Fiona Uden. We walked as a group up the road where the gates were opened, and we all trouped in. In many ways it was a traditional church picnic -- a pot luck with lots of food.


There was some question about whether the picnic would be held since the weather was not good. It rained most of Saturday and Saturday night and looked as if it might start raining again. There was an awning to cover the tables with food but insufficient cover for people if the rains came.






But the rain held off so eating and conversing could take place in the open.














There was a swimming pool, and we'd been invited to bring suits to swim. The weather discouraged all but a couple of hardy kids. But it did make for a nice background for this picture of Young Il Kim, whom I'd invited to join the picnic, Sung Hee, and me.


Our Vicar, Paul Mooney, who's originally from
Ireland, appeared to enjoy the social occasion.













The Ambassador chatted with parishioners. So did his wife, but she also worked on the clean-up crew.












As we left we had the opportunity to walk through the embassy grounds. It's lovely and amazing to find such a restful residence in the middle of Seoul.

The structure is definitely Victorian. There's a plaque on the stonework dating from 1890, "being the 54th year of the reign of her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria." It also notes that that was the "16th year of Kuang Hsu and the 499th of the Corean era."

It began drizzling a bit as we left the embassy grounds and walked to a coffee shop. Great timing.