Reformation 500: Day 1

This was the first day of the Reformation 500 conference. We had two mini-tours scheduled before the opening ceremonies, so that later we would not miss any talks. The first thing we went to was a meeting for the treasure hunt. We were late, because we did not have time to check email the night before. We got a coded message to translate. Here are some pictures of the meeting on Mr. Phillips' blog.

After the meeting we left for our first mini tour. It was of the Granary and King's Chapel burying grounds with Dr. Joe Morecraft and Richard Holland. Dr. Morecraft is a preacher from Georgia and he knows a lot about the Reformation. He was on the Scotland Faith and Freedom Tour with us last summer. Richard Holland lives in Boston, and he does Christian history tours in Boston. First we went to the Granary burying ground. It is called the patriot's grave yard. John Handcock, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, James Otis and other famous people are buried here. Mr. Holland spoke on the people buried here, and Dr. Morecraft spoke on the War for Independence.

Park Street Church, where one of the evil Unitarian abolitionist
preached before the Second War for American Independence

Dr. Morecraft and Mr. Holland, in front of Benjamin Franklin's parents' grave

Next we visited the King's Chapel burying ground. It is known as the preacher's graveyard. John Winthrop was buried here, along with the first person to get off the Mayflower and the gravestone that was the inspiration for The Scarlet Letter by Nataniel Hawtorne, which was written against the Puritans.



Our next tour was the Old South Meeting House with Dan Ford. Mr. Ford has a lot of very old books and documents which were important, and he shows them on his tours. The Old South Meeting House was a church in the time of the War for Independence. It was where they met before the Boston Tea party. Mr. Ford talked about the beginnings of the War for Independence here. We next went to the Old State House, where the Boston Massacre took place. Here Mr. Ford talked about the Boston Massacre and the doctrine of interposition. The last stop on the tour was the Benjamin Franklin statue. Mr. Ford talked about his life, especially how he was a diplomat before the War for Independance.

Old South Meeting House

Mr. Ford

Benjamin Franklin

After the tour ended, we went with some of the Breagys to a bookstore that Mr. Holland recommended, Brattle Street Books. Daddy bought lots of books, which our friends the Damings brought back to NC for us since we flew. We went back to the hotel, and we went to "Meet the Reformers." Vision Forum had about 40 people who were re-enactors of the Reformers. If you got 30 of them to sign your program, you got a ten dollar gift certificate. We also had to ask them a certain question so that they would give us clues for the treasure hunt. After this there were the opening ceremonies. Mr. Phillips spoke, and each of the speakers gave a brief summary of their messages. Charlie Zahm also sang some songs.

The Book Store