U.K. churchgoers stunned as Bidens join them at Sunday service

[George II]

Churchgoers in a seaside resort in England say they have been left “gobsmacked” when U.S. President Joe Biden and the first lady Jill Biden dropped in for a Sunday service.

The Bidens are in Cornwall, southwest England, where the U.S. president is attending a Group of Seven wealthy democracies summit.

On Sunday morning, ahead of the summit’s conclusion, they were seen attending mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in St. Ives.

“I think gobsmacked is probably a very true word,” said Annie Fitzpatrick, 58. “It’s quite amazing, we went into the church and they took some details from us and I thought this is a bit unusual.

"About 10 minutes into the service the doors opened up and President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden walked in and just sat in the pew just across from me.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-k-churchgoers-stunned-bidens-join-them-sunday-service-n1270608

[SheltieLover]

1. Nice!

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Can you imagine if that Orange Fucker and his Succubus showed up? Flames.

[bottomofthehill]

5. Lightning

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. The earth would've opened and consumed them all,

[sarge43]

21. The building would have imploded. n/t

[GoodRaisin]

35. Laughing.

His Succubus. That's a good characterization of Melanie.

[Budi]

38. From Stephen Colbert 👍

[BobTheSubgenius]

53. One of the nicest summations of the last 40 years that I can think of.

Nice one!

[Budi]

54. I'm saving that one

🙂

[calimary]

65. DAYUM! Nailed it!

This one certainly is a keeper!

[Blue Owl]

43. The view from the pew behind them would have looked like...

[paleotn]

81. Damien can't go inside chuches

[llashram]

84. big big

large flames coming from their eyes, nose, ears...they would probably explode and end up back here in the good ole USA whole and calling for Insurrection and reinstatement, again.

[efhmc]

3. What? No water cannons?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. This makes me smile

Link to tweet

[FalloutShelter]

6. Competence, Decency, and Love

I adore the Bidens.

[BobTheSubgenius]

10. You are not alone.

I never thought there could be a First Family as impressive as the Obamas. I can't tell you how delighted I am to be wrong.

[liberalla]

26. Yes, yes, yes! That is how I've been feeling but I hadn't put it into words...

But you have put it into words - perfectly. Thank you!

[BobTheSubgenius]

55. You are more than welcome.

I'm glad it you enjoyed it. Feel free to use it, if you ever feel the need.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

78. Gosh, Biden, a Catholic, goes to the local Catholic church for Sunday Mass

When he is out of town on business.

[dalton99a]

7. Kick

[Layzeebeaver]

9. I've walked that street

Its a very cute section of the town

[BobTheSubgenius]

12. It looks incredibly quaint and picturesque.

I've always wanted to visit Portwenn, but it doesn't really exist. I realize it's a real village used as location, but it's not the same.

[csziggy]

23. I wanted to visit Port Isaac (the real life Portwenn) but our timing was off

We took a wrong turn and traveled up the Worthy Toll Road out of Porlock, a very historic and beautiful drive. Since that took longer than the main route, we didn't have a chance to take the side trip to Port Isaac.

[Layzeebeaver]

45. I ate a whole lobster in port Isaac

We watched it being brought into the restaurant from the boat.

It was delicious.

[csziggy]

46. Was it at Bert's Cafe?

Seriously, I wanted to stop for lunch at the place that was the location for Bert's restaurant. Oh, well - the Worthy Toll Road is a neat drive:

The last part, just as we were getting to the open fields, we were just inundated with pheasants (or maybe grouse). We ended up crawling along since they would fly out of the hedges as we came up to them and we didn't want to hit them.

You can see the main road, A39, that we were supposed to take, but we missed the turn. By the time we realized it, we were almost at the toll road gate so we decided to take it. It was well worth it.

[CurtEastPoint]

47. I LOVE DOC MARTIN! Also, I thought you wrote you were inundated by PEASANTS! LOL!

[csziggy]

48. Oh - I do too. I think I will watch it all the way through yet again

As for the peasants, the scenery was about right:

[Layzeebeaver]

49. No, it was the "Slipway" right at the slipway

https://www.portisaachotel.com

[csziggy]

51. That looks like a nice place!

While we may never make it back to the UK - we spent two and a half months in the fall of 2019 - we keep adding places to our list that we would like to go back to see. I'd like to go back to the Orkneys, maybe on to the Shetlands this time, and my husband liked Cornwall best of all. I'd love to go back to Skye since I was sick the day my husband had a tour of the island and so I missed most of it. And I'd love to take the train from Glasgow to Maillag, which is the Harry Potter train.

It's cool to see places on TV shows we've been to in person. I saw a Wycliffe episode set at Lizard with a pivotal scene at the Lifeboat station we got to look down at. And of course, from Doc Martin, Port Isaac looks so familiar.

[Layzeebeaver]

61. Cornwall is one our favs

But a tie with the Isle of Harris.

We loved a few stays at the sound of Harris.

https://www.soundofharris.scot|

[csziggy]

62. Now that is the middle of now where!

But it would be interesting to stay there. How's the bird watching? Any good archeological sites there? Those are what we went to the Orkneys for, birds and holes in the ground.

[Layzeebeaver]

74. Lots of birds..

One of the huts has a telescope. So we took it outside one evening. The sky is free from light pollution. It was fantastic.

[CurtEastPoint]

50. Mrs. Tischel moonlights as a server.

[BobTheSubgenius]

52. I would not be eating anything she handled.

Who knows what she might have put in it?

[CurtEastPoint]

58. Good one! She was... eccentric, to say the least!

[BobTheSubgenius]

60. A good portion of that town was eccentric, but she actually stood out!

If it wasn't for the hills, I'd like to live there, as long as it came with the cast of characters. My wife wants to move to Dog River, but only if the whole Corner Gas crew came with it.

[Historic NY]

28. Tight squeeze...

[gay texan]

63. the Secret Service

has to keep up with the oil in the engine. Apparently there's a gearhead in the bunch....

[BobTheSubgenius]

13. Look at that!

Someone showed him how to hold the book properly! NOW it's Presidential.

[LiberalLovinLug]

17. What a Dufass

You just know, after he corrected his stupid first mistake of holding the holy book upside down, flips it around to present the title of the book, written on the spine, as the name is not written on the front. (I checked other photos)

He has to make sure..for the cameras....that they know what book this is. Like a marketer making sure to present the brand. Totally forced and awkward pose, without any awareness that that is unnecessary to most folks more familiar with what a Bible looks like.

[Mr.Bill]

25. Holding it like it's

a can of Goya beans.

[maddiemom]

82. It will be hard for any future POTUS to top in terms of brainless disrespect:

a big display of cans of Goya beans spread out on the Resolute desk.

[maddiemom]

83. It will be hard for any future POTUS to top in terms of brainless disrespect:

a big display of cans of Goya beans spread out on the Resolute desk.

[Habibi]

18. He looks just chock-full of the love of Jesus, don't he? nt

[plimsoll]

32. His base doesn't believe in a God of love

Or Christ a that is redeemer for that matter. He looks the perfect part for his religious right base. Stern, dictatorial, authoritarian. There’s a reason they adore him. He personifies the values of their god. Ignore the words they spew, look at the behavior they condone and support.

[Ilsa]

56. He looks like he's thinking,

"This is my f>@%ing Bible, on my f

[needledriver]

41. Delete this. Just delete it.

Having this photo in this thread is like a turd in the punchbowl.

[PatSeg]

42. Seriously

Trump never learned that often "less is more". Its not like he hasn't seen the many photos of himself and how ridiculous that tan looks, but I guess he sees what he wants to see.

[Cha]

44. Fascism wrapped in a flag & thumping the

Bible.. in this case by a butt ugly orange thing with lily white hands.

[Permanut]

64. Looks like the pillow guy.

[aggiesal]

14. Where was the National Guard to clear the path? n/t

[KentuckyWoman]

15. Late for church ... what a heathen

snark.

In all sincerity, being late was probably not his choice. The security people probably held him up, with cooperation of the local Priest.

[George II]

20. Yes, the Secret Service probably wanted to make sure everyone was settled in their seats before....

....Biden entered the church.

But as I see almost every week (at least until churches locked down), being late to Catholic Mass is a thing.

[mcar]

24. It always was

I'm not much of a churchgoer these days but I'm a cradle Catholic and even went to a Jesuit college. I used to love those 1/2 hour masses at the college chapel.

[shrike3]

33. Yes, it certainly is a thing.

[calimary]

66. Yep. It's a thing.

Always aimed for being timely but finding a place to park could be rather challenging.

That said, if Mom got there early enough so we could grab a seat on the center aisle, that was always useful for flirting with the altar boys…

Ahhhhh… Catholic school…

[rustbeltvoice]

37. Well, we were taught

if you made it for the reading of the Gospel, and stayed to the Consecration--it counts as have attending the Mass.

[KentuckyWoman]

39. The communion shuffle.

come forward for communion and hit the door. To be fair, my sister's husband would stop out in the entry and cross himself before bolting for the car.

We still tease him that he could never have survived the 3-4 hour church we had growing up. Basically, we'd go until the preacher got hungry, then we'd all eat either in the hall next to the chapel or outside.

[shrike3]

59. The communion shuffle. LOL

[calimary]

67. Yep. Saw quite a bit of that, too.

“One on the tongue and yer done. Bye!”

[SergeStorms]

16. Church for MF45.....

was a prop for a photo-op. I'm a secular humanist, but having a man and woman in charge who actually believe in something gives me more hope and peace than a malignant narcissist and his soft-porn hussy.

President Biden and the First Lady have done so much in three days to repair relationships with our allies, I'm astounded.

[badhair77]

19. Same thing happened with my friend in Charleston.

It was after he was VP and before he was a candidate for 2020. He just walked in, sat down in front of her, no fanfare. Just an average Saturday evening.

[mcar]

22. Pres. Joe and Dr. Jill are wonderful people

[Lonestarblue]

27. Yet the white evangelicals love the amoral Trump and hate the pious Bidens.

Go figure. Ignorance and hatefulness seem to have a uniquely Republican twist these days.

[Boomerproud]

29. Yet, they're proud of their hatred.

Stay away from me.

[Midnight Writer]

30. The point in my life when I realized evangelicals were full of beans was when they trashed Carter

and embraced Reagan.

[catrose]

77. That did it for me too

[JI7]

34. white evangelicals are just racists hiding behind religion

[rustbeltvoice]

40. with the pharisaical and monomaniac Catholics

you hear ABORTION, they emit it like other repukes did BENGHAZI.

No matter what the nature of something that is good, or pleasant, or likable about Biden, he will be attacked, and his Catholicism denied; while the opposite is true of Orange Caligula. no matter what disgusting, awful thing Trumple-thin-skin says or does, he will be defended with stupid verbal gymnastics.

[wendyb-NC]

31. Wonderful

[Paladin]

36. Take note, U.S. fundamentalist trump worshippers! (nt)

[Sapient Donkey]

57. I'm kinda tempted to see what kind of stupid ridiculous stuff they are saying about this

but I also don't want to subject myself to such torture.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

68. Don't start insisting that your politicians do the same, UK!

You don't want to go down that path again, trust me!

Other than that minor concern from me, nice gesture by the Bidens!

Importance of religion by country
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Importance_of_religion_by_country#

[MustLoveBeagles]

69. That's great

The perishers will have a story to tell. I imagine it will become apart of the church's folklore.

[Rhiannon12866]

70. Of course they did! :) Photos:

[Sgent]

71. Joe

is fairly regular about church attendance anyway, but make no mistake that attending a Catholic mass in the UK sent a real message to Boris Johnson abut the viability of negotiating a UK/US trade agreement while the Good Friday accords are in danger.

[GulfCoast66]

72. I'm no longer religious. But respect Joe's faith.

He did not to church for a photo op. He goes all the time. He went because it was church day. It’s what he does. Everyone makes a big deal of it. Except him. He just does Joe.

[Grins]

73. Evangelicals...? You're up! NM

[JohnnyRingo]

75. Let's see the pictures!

Oh yeah, that was the last guy.

[Joinfortmill]

76. Gotta love Joe.

[LaMouffette]

79. How wonderful it is to get frequent infusions of feel-good news about our president and first lady!

Rather than the daily taser-gun-like assaults on our country's morality, humanity, ethics, and rule of law that were inflicted upon us for over four years by the former guy.

Love you, President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden!

[Rabrrrrrr]

80. And yet the stains are still convinced that Trump is SuperChristian(tm) and Biden (and all liberals)

are anti-Christian.

Biden can go to church a million times and the Evangelicals will never accept him as a Christian.

Trump never goes to church, never did go to church, knows nothing of theology or ethics, and the only time he enters the grounds of a church building is if there's a photo op to be had, and yet his base thinks he's the most pious and holy president ever.