Catholic Mass near London's Heathrow
 

My cousin and I will have a 4 hour stop-over in London on Sunday morning, Mar.6 and would like to go to mass somewhere close enough to get back for our trip to Seville, Spain. Does anyone know what church is closest or most picturesque, address. Thanks.

with only 4 hours you would do well to stay put. getting into and out of LHR, clearing immigration, and going through security on your way back will eat up most of that 4 hours w/o ever getting near a church.

If it is very importatnt to you - I'd just go to one of the chapels in the airport for some quiet meditation and prayer. You might luck out and find a service in progress.

http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/chaplncy/heathrow.html
Daily Mass at 12.30 pm, but phone or e-mail the RC chaplain to be sure for the particular Sunday.

St George's, the central chapel, is pretty much over the central tube and HEX station: you have to go through immigration to get to it.

Picturesque it isn't. In fact the number of picturesque Catholic churches in England can be counted on the fingers of one hand: the Prods nicked them all bar a couple 450 years ago, and we've had to do with the cheapest horrors we can afford ever since. For future refernce, the nearest remotely picturesque Catholic church is jn Ely Place, Holborn.

The Brunel site is misleading. From memory, there are several scheduled masses at St George's on Sundays and holydays - at 0730 and 1800 as well as 1230.

In Seville, however, you will certainly find a wider choice of times (and much more of the picturesque). Surely their cathedral will have masses late in the afternoon?

You know, Flanner, that is not right-in the Papes vs. Prods battle in the UK, (a battle which is almost every bit as, -what's the word I'm looking for here-striated? demarcated? as what one finds in N.Ireland) the Papes have really gotten the short end of the stick in the UK, IMO.

there is internet access in heathrow,
maybe you could watch mass online themass.com

i would cringe at the idea of going through customs in such a short stayover.

Spygirl:

There is no Papes vs Prods battle in England. It finished centuries ago. They got the pretty churches. We run the place.

And religion plays less of a role in England than probably any other country in the world. Tony B.Liar intended finshing a speech off a couple of months ago with "God Bless". His advisors censored it because some might find it offensive.

Really, Flanner? Have you ever been to Glasgow on King Billy day? It's scary. Have you ever watched a match between the Rangers and Celtic, or the HIbs and Hearts? Have you seen the rioting that occurs after a match-the shouts of "orange prick" among the nicer comments before the Papes and Proddies set upon each other, in order to beat each other senseless? Scotland is in the UK isn't it? In light of this, I guess I don't really understand how you can justify your response.

spygirl,

To be fair to flanner he specified England - not the UK as a whole.

I was at the Celtic v Rangers match last Sunday. Almost 60,000 fans attended & over the city as a whole there were around 30 arrests. Yes there are problems over this issue but let's keep it in perspective.

Jim

Spygirl, you really are getting carried away. Scotland is Scotland, England is England. There is no conflict between catholics and protestants in England because, as Flanner says, no one gives a stuff about religion in England.

That, of course, was the point of the Church of England in the first place (cf. Elizabeth I: "I would not make a window into men's souls...")

<removes self from scene pretty quickly>