I love finding out about interesting churches this way. St Mary Battersea looks a delight.

And you are very welcome! Thanks for the positive feedback.

I understand your concerns - but the church has needed some love for some time. Hopefully their renovation will result in an overall win.

I walked in that day in complete ignorance of this critical corner of the war and Father Magnus laid it out in such fascinating detail. I'm so glad you enjoyed it too - thanks for the feedback.

@@hereticatious Fr Magnus was an excellent subject for interview. So articulate. What a beautiful church. I must visit it soon. Thanks for a very good couple of videos about this church.

There's a nice video focused on vestments coming soon - keep watching.

Fr Kevin is so authentic and bold on camera - in real life he's even more so!

Me either - and it all so closely linked with English/British history.

There is a lot of history - but it all links together - watch the second episode to see how.

Henry VIII kept the Mass and always considered himself a Catholic. It is his son Edward and later Elizabeth who made Catholicism illegal

That's exactly what I was going for!

It took an hour (well nearly)- you are in a very elite club of people who watched it.

Thankyou for watching. I'm glad you got to visit - this church has to be seen.

I dunno - this is a very low bar for madness - if everyone's mad - no one is. What isn't society's sanctioned mental illness? Answering my own question now I think about it - Oh science. Perhaps you're right and I'm wrong?

Yes - sounds like we had a similar education. You don't have to believe it to recognise the impact on our literary, musical and built culture. Learning about this stuff holds a mirror up to the present day (albeit a somewhat compact mirror). Thanks for watching.

@@hereticatious My own background was strictly non-conformist - parents married in a Methodist church, sent to a Congregational Sunday School to get me out of the house. But as I go back through my mother's family I soon find involvement with the Swedenborgian church. My American cousin was the first woman to be ordained in her (liberal) branch of the church, and she married two women on a Florida beach one morning. Fr. Kevin is right, though. As soon as you get Protestantism, you get splintering. Even the Swedeborgians have done that - and the episcopal, conservative branch has always been more successful in the USA. It's as if people want to be told what to do and what to believe, not left to be able to think for themselves. And if that's what you want, Fr. Kevin's argument for going for the "authentic" version is hard to resist.

Hmm... there are other claims for authenticity with similar historical depth. From where I sit - its all pick and choose.

@@hereticatious I'm sure you're right. And I'm equally sure we don't need any of it.

I think perhaps its a bit better than I made it look - I certainly didn't show everything worth looking at in the church.

Don't sweat - forecasts are often wrong.

It's genuinely touching that such a direct contact as your's with these horrible events exists. Thanks for the interesting and informative comment.

St Mary Woolwich seems to have been unloved in countless ways - right up to the unsympathetic tower block plonked in front of its view of the river. I hope for a happier future (without much expectation it will be fulfilled, I'm afraid).

It was always my plan to include that monument in my film - but on the day I ran too late to get to the cemetery before it closed. You've prompted me to go and take a look just now - I've posted some shots on instagram. It's bigger than it looks on wikipedia - but - how can I say this...., it's not exactly the Albert Memorial. Thanks for reminding me to cycle over there!

Thanks - fixed.

Steady on

Played by Oliver Reed

Me too

Okay - but what a straw!

@hereticatious from somebody who had that straw but found it wanting I can assure you there are a million straws out there , I found my straw and its not hollow

@billybobwombat2231 but if your straw isn't hollow - how can you drink your milkshake :-)

@@hereticatious I chew it

I get the march of history argument. I guess I would love for our evolving society to find a way to create beautiful public spaces like this - just for their own sake. I'm not convinced we are entirely on top of that yet. At minimum we should value and support what we already have in our pockets.

@@hereticatious I am from the Buddhist tradition. If there is one thing we embrace here in Asia, it is the fact that everything, every single thing, is in a constant, unstoppable, and irredeemable process of change. Those who try to stop this change merely aid it on its way. That which is now beautiful to you was once mundane to your ancestors. In a few millennia, people will be standing around the Temple of the Plastic Church of Prefab Transness saying, “We must keep this as it is for the posterity of all peoples of Mars.” Today’s hippies are tomorrow’s conservatives. Was it not one of your great English poets who said things are “changed utterly”? I forget who. But I understand the nostalgia of wanting to preserve precious things. Personally, I hate seeing our temples being decked out with flashing lights, and people placing bottled of Coca Cola on altars as offerings. But I turn my chagrin into a giggle at my silliness at wanting to keep things “as they were”.

I'm sure there's some self serving going on here - but the metaphorical force of mystery is an end in itself when you take it out of religion (I offer you Game of Thrones as an example) - so I don't think we need to be complete cynical about both is creators or its power. Obviously there's no obligation or reason to believe it's factually true - while also believing it's (on balance) good.

@@hereticatious In my case, I've an extensive history of delivery as a seer medium in the European CFSP State Department. i have no doubts whatsoever in the matter, and table a decent share of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize as autonomous proof. It's been seen in action by some top shrinks - they call it hyperperception - and half the outgoing government, who ended up kicking themselves for damn nearly destroying me - they were begging for more and didn't find them, having seen me handle a major strategic issue in 6 hours overnight - the kind of thing that takes the Foreign Office a year. However, the way the priesthood has crashed the direct relationship in Matthew 6 out of sheer greed is beyond words. In fact, having followed the Gandhi business with the only thing in the book bigger than stabilising an entire continent, the question I had to face, having been Jonahed into position, is why the Boss did it that way, pulling the plug on the RC Eucharist says something about taking Matthew 18:8 very seriously indeed. As a result, with stage training, I'm very fast, so the eye's on the result, not the advanced technology masquerading as magic. But I can discourse at length about 15th Century geopolitics!

Kevin or me?

I love how one subject leads to another - thanks for the insight and its added to the list.

You have no choice - this is KZfaq directing you to watch it again. For your own sake - you should submit!

There an actual error towards the end (when I'm walking around and summarizing) - unfortunately KZfaq doesn't offer a facility to patch in a fix. But are there other bits where the audio isn't working for you? I sweat blood over the audio - but I am definitely a beginner - so by all means direct me to a bad bit.

Coming soon - we'll do a bit of a special on vestments. Do subscribe if you haven't already.

I had a go at getting it out of my local library - not available. I'll keep looking.

@@hereticatious Nockles' DPhil thesis from Oxford may be online.

Yes - I don't like to think what it was like with the upstairs partitions in place. However, come back next week - as we look at the other half of the church.

I understand where you are coming from. It's not quite as bad as that - next week we look at the prettier (victorian) end of the church. There's also very poignant memorial as you will see.

I wouldn't have either a nine months ago. You have a choice - watch all my videos in order (I'm very much in favour of this option) OR tell me what you'd like to see?

@@hereticatiousNo, thank you. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Live and let live.

@@Jack-il3qv Your curtesy and restraint leaves me no choice - I (reluctantly) release you back in to the environment 🙂

@@hereticatious 'Blessed are you when people exclude you..' From the Beatitudes. I am indeed blessed. I am never without a choice. I shall go where strangers are welcome.

Yes - genuinely moving. Thanks for watching.

@@hereticatious I’m really enjoying your videos. Great interviewing style. I love how you let these interesting characters talk and reveal so much about the churches. Your channel deserves more views. 👏👏👏👏👏👏

I'm very sympathetic. However for me - the consequentialism of the maths of Einstein's relativity, the exquisite outcomes of Darwin's evolution, the remarkable simplicity and power of Smith's invisible hand, the effortless 'ought from an is' implied by John Rawl's 'veil of ignorance' - are just as moving, as delightful and as awe inspiring. I think beauty is rarely a trap - and when it is - it's usually in a very interesting way. But absolutely you do you - some of the catholics I've met creating this channel are indeed awesome in their faith. I don't share their faith - but I love it when they watch my videos - and hopefully we both get something out of them. Thanks for watching.

​@@hereticatious bless you I hear that, yes humans are educated to love the explanations of all types. Science is a human explanation for the "theories" (often conspiracy theories haha) that we currently have to to complex thoughts at the given time until another theory comes along and then that is the norm. Is the Colour green that I see, actually the same colour green that you see ??? I also realised that science can be dangerous and can take on the form of a religion also, take climate science at the moment (well funded death cult, putting human gods above nature, and only the human gods can solve through restrictios and control)...... for me it all started in my garden looking up at the stars and contemplating infinity....and this theory still has not been solved and never will be here on this mortal coil . The Mystery of faith seamed all of a sudden a better bet (hee hee).... keep up the interesting work and thanks to google Ai for showing it to me

Back-ward looking may be right - to put the clock backward may be correct if it is telling the wrong time.