July 27, 2008

I was up at 6:30 am and off for my morning walk/jog. It was another lovely sunny, but not too hot, day. I ate my breakfast in my little kitchen this morning and packed up my vestments and sermon to meet my drivers, John and Janet Paul at 9am. They drove me to Dover by a route that took me to a National Heritage Site called White Cliffs so I could see the White Cliffs of Dover! It turns out they have been reading my blog and knew I wanted to see them! The cliffs are chalk white and as the sun was shining on them, they were very white. I was told however, that there are no blue birds in England, so that song about the blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover is not quite accurate! Dover has a big resemblance to Halifax. There is a big container pier, about 130 cruise ships that come over the summer months, ferries coming and going across to Calais, a waterfront that is being developed, parts of the city that seriously need development and some wonderful historic buildings. They have an ancient castle from Roman times in very good condition – we can’t compete with that!

I was preaching at St. Mary the Virgin this morning. Parts of the church are Norman, as evidenced by the arches, and other parts have been added or altered over the centuries. It was Civic Service Sunday so all the members of the local governments were in attendance. There were photos taken and promises of email copies, so when they arrive I will forward them. The councillors' historic garb was just as elaborate as my vestments, but I didn’t have the wig! I had a super barbecue lunch with some of the parishioners and then went off with the Vicar, David Ridley, to do a baptism. It was very different from home. We returned to our hosts for pudding (dessert) and tea. David drove me back to Canterbury in time to arrive at St. Augustine’s Abbey where we had time and a guide to tour the ruins of the Abbey, started by Augustine on his arrival in England. Large parts of it are gone of course since Henry VIII had them destroyed, but parts were rebuilt, and it now houses a school. It was amazing to me to see names from my church history course on markers of former tombs. The Lord Mayor of Canterbury, who was sponsoring the gathering, spoke to us briefly. She took time to tease Archbishop Rowan about this being the burial place of archbishops of Canterbury. He responded in good humour. After drinks and snacks, the coaches returned us to the University for dinner.

The Listeners met at 9pm for the first round of writing. My material was not yet available so our group will have to work tomorrow on the responses to the Bishop and the Environment. However, a draft version of the first part of the report has come together. We try it out on the Indaba groups tomorrow for feedback before our discussion of the Bishops and other faiths.