Before I left for Canada, my new friend, Dominique Mentior, a lovely Belgian Walloon (= French-speaking) said: "Nancy, you must walk on the cliffs of Dover and see the Canterbury Cathedral". Now, who could say no to that? So she packed me into her car and we drove across Belgium and France to Dunkerque, where we got the ferry to Dover, England. And the weather couldn't have been more perfect!
And the cliffs of Dover are as white as I imagined them, even up close. Down little country roads we went (on the lefthand side of the road, of course!) to St. Margaret's-at-Cliffe, where we parked the car and hiked along the cliffs. What a beautiful experience under a blue sky, through fields of wild flowers and alongside a busy, blue English Channel!
The county of Kent that we drove through on our way to Canterbury was exactly as one would expect England to be: villages, tree-lined country lanes, timber-framed houses, flintstone cottages, beautiful gardens, lots of roses, pubs offering ale and steak & kidney pie and an ambiance that made me feel I was on a stroll down a country lane on a Sunday afternoon.
And then, just as Chaucer's pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales, we walked through the streets of Canterbury to the history-laden cathedral. What an exquisite building! It stands alone in all its
beauty in an oasis of green, in the midst of a busy town. It's so huge you can't get a full photo of it.
If this cathedral could talk, its stones would tell you many stories. Let me tell you three that meant a lot to me.
1. Thomas Becket was ordained Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162 by Henry II .... and murdered in the cathedral in 1170 by four of his knights. Henry is purported to have said: "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?!" A rift had grown between them over disagreements concernng the separation of Church and State.
place in the cathedral where he was assassinated
2. In the latter half of the 16th century, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France that withdrew from the Huguenots (or Protestants) their freedom of religion, thousands of Huguenots from France and Walloons from Belgium streamed across the English Channel to England as refugees, seeking religious freedom.
Edward VI, being intensely Protestant and eager to have England's cotton woven in England rather than in Belgium, welcomed them to Canterbury and gave them the crypt of the cathedral to worship in. There were around 900 of them at that time.
As their number decreased, they were granted the chantry chapel of the Black Prince, in the crypt, and it is used by a French Huguenot/Protestant congregation to this day. One of the older elders of St. Andrew's in Brussels, was the minister here for many years! It was an exciting place for me to visit, so filled with history!
3. In World War II, during bombing raids, the cathedral was protected by firewatchers who sat on the roofs of the cathedral and patrolled them, dealing with incendiary bombs.
Canterbury Cathedral is a huge tourist attraction but it is also a quiet, serious place of worship. I wanted to experience this, so Dominique and I went to Matins in the morning - a meditative, reflective Communion service, and Evensong in the late afternoon - held in the Quire and with a choir of men who sang the chants. Very meaningful for me.
Canterbury also has timber-framed houses, good pubs, lovely gardens, lots of roses, narrow 16th century streets with cobblestones, and Roman walls. It was fun to explore with my camera.
very nice!
ReplyDeleteIt's so beautiful that it doesn't seem quite like a real town. Sort of for Hollywood...
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