Leigh Hatts

Tim Gee, who lives near the Old Kent Road, was planning to walk to Canterbury during Holy Week arriving this Easter weekend. Aware that St Thomas’ Hospital is named after St Thomas Becket whose shrine was at Canterbury, Tim is fundraising for Latin American Women’s Aid refuge. Not to be stopped by the virus crisis […]

A cave has been discovered under the grounds of St Catherine’s Chapel in Surrey. The chapel is on the Pilgrims’ Way from Winchester and just south of Guildford, between Compton and St Martha’s Hill. St Catherine’s Chapel was built in 1317 as a chapel of ease for St Nicholas Church in Guildford but is known […]

Due to the extreme restrictions on movement of people due to the virus there has been an immediate termination of live broadcasts from Southwark, Canterbury and Winchester Cathedrals. At present only Southwark has announced alternative arrangements: Morning Prayer 9am and Compline 9pm are being streamed live on Facebook from The Deanery on Bankside. On Sunday […]

Today is the 40th anniversary of Oscar Romero’s assassination. Archbishop of San Salvador Oscar Romero was shot dead at the altar of a hospital chapel on orders of the state having spoken for the poor and appealed to the army not to kill innocent fellow-citizens. News of his death was a sensation when reported in […]

Services are being streamed live from Southwark Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral and Canterbury Cathedral, the start and climax of the two pilgrim roads. At Southwark daily services are 9.15 Eucharist and 4pm Evensong. Sunday services are 11am and 3pm. The backdrop at Southwark Cathedral is the huge Lent artwork called Pilgrimage by Michelle Rumney featuring hanging […]

It is extraordinary that whilst many of us are disappointed that we shall not be arriving on foot in Canterbury during this Becket2020 year we are suddenly able to be there daily. Services are being broadcast live from the cathedral. The congregation is us watching online. The reader at today’s noon Mass was canon missioner […]

The display of Peta Bridle’s dry point etchings in Southwark Cathedral includes an interesting view of Spur Yard before its recent regeneration for a modern hotel. Spur Yard is one of many old inn yard turnings off Borough High Street. Now it is the entrance to a Premier Inn which may be equally handy for […]

An opera based on TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral is being staged at the Queen Elizabeth Hall this month. Murder in the Cathedral, or Assassinio nella cattedrale, was first performed at La Scala Milan in 1958. In December 2006 there was a performance in the Basilica of St Nicholas in Bari. St Thomas Becket […]

Southwark Cathedral was a lit by candlelight on Friday evening for an ‘after hours’ viewing of the Lenten art work. Pilgrimage by Michelle Rumney features candles, strings of hundreds of people measured for the artwork and the route of the road from Southwark to Canterbury traced on huge sheets. Today’s pilgrim road is the one […]

The first signs of spring are appearing along the Pilgrims’ Way. There is a burst of blossom outside St George the Martyr in Borough High Street, the first church on the route from Southwark Cathedral to Canterbury, to tempt us on pilgrimage.