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Last week, I reviewed Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne to celebrate the 100th anniversary of publication. Tina shared books about older characters, including a list of books set in the British Isles.

The Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields celebrates the 300th anniversary of their building this fall. The congregation is at least 500 years older and the beginning is lost in time. But we know a lot about the history of the building.

I took this photo on a Sunday morning, while listening to the bells ringing in the steeple of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Architect James Gibbs was commissioned to build a new church on the site of the previous failing building. The foundation stone was laid in 1722.

Although the building is now an iconic part of the city scape, at the edge of Trafalgar Square, in its early history, the church really did have a place in the fields when London and Westminster were separate towns.

St. Martin-in-the-Fields has a long slate of programs to celebrate the occasion, but the main church service is this Sunday. All of their services are streamed live on YouTube and Facebook. I frequently watch them as a calm and compassionate way to begin my mornings, especially on Sundays.

When I first heard of a church called St. Martin-in-the-Fields, I imagined a church in a field of wildflowers. Apparently, I’m not the only one because one of the ways that the 300th anniversary is being celebrated is with flowers. We got a sneak peek during Wednesday night’s Bread for the World service. What a stunning display! Can you imagine the scent of all those flowers?

This Sunday’s service will include “a grand procession of organisations that trace their origins to St Martin-in-the-Fields.” I hope that will include the organization that first introduced me to this church — the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, which I wrote about on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Neville Marriner’s birth day.

When did you first encounter St. Martin-in-the-Fields?