Canterbury Wrap-up

It's now several weeks since I returned from Canterbury. Still think of it and what I experienced there almost every day. Here is a wrap-up of the rest of the time there.

This is the entire group of Canterbury Scholars in the garden of St. Andrew's House, the home of the Anglican Communion Office. We met the Rev. Ken Kearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion and some of his staff. We also gave presentations on aspects of the life of the communion that were important to us. We had a great lunch and then a barge ride down the Thames to Greenwich, then back on the bus to Canterbury.

It was a long day -- Gabriel and Mark enjoy a little shut-eye on the cruise down the River Thames

On one of our next to last day, we visited some of the famous religous sites in Kent. This is a baptismal font at Richborough, the site of an old Roman fort and port, and most likely the site of St. Augustine's landing in 597 A.D. There is an old chapel on the site as well. This is believed to be the site from which Christianity was (re)spread across the Britain.

This is the pulpit in St. Mary's Church, Bishopsbourne, Kent. Richard Hooker was the rector of St. Mary's and in its rectory completed Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, the 16th century masterwork of Anglican Via Media. Hooker left a provision in his will that this pulpit for the church was to be provided as his legacy.

St. Mary's must have enjoyed the favor of the late Victorians. Also in the church is this amazing Edward Burne-Jones window and an even more amazing William Morris reredos.

St. Mary's moved some of us to sing and dance. My fellow scholars from all around Africa sang the song that the Martyrs of Uganda sang as they were led to their martyrdoms in 1885-1887 & 1977. We sang the song again as the sequence hymn the next day at the 11:00 A.M. Holy Eucharist in Canterbury Cathedral.

The last Sunday was for a final Holy Eucharist in the Cathedral and a garden party in our honor... then good-byes.