Kentish Saints and Martyrs

The ‘Kentish Saints and Martyrs’ public, free talks begin at St Paul’s church with Dr Sarah James on Saturday 18 September at 7.30pm and conclude the following Saturday at St Thomas’ RC church with Dr Rachel Koopmans. This is a brilliant opportunity for the Centre for Kent History and Heritage to work with Canterbury’s churches and to showcase some fascinating features of these saints and their cults. There are posters around Canterbury and please also see the previous blog at: https://blogs.canterbury.ac.uk/kenthistory/kent-history-in-the-news-talks-exhibitions-and-other-events/ 

You are invited to join
A Week of Presentations in September 2021 about Kentish Saints and Martyrs, from 600-1600.

Each evening at 7.30pm.

The presentations will take place at Canterbury Church venues as listed OR online OR some of each.

Saint Mildred, princess and abbess, with her grandfather, Saint Ethelbert, King of Kent, at Saint Mildred’s church.

Saturday 18 September: St Paul’s church:
‘An introduction to the cult of saints’
by Dr Sarah James (previously University of Kent)

Monday 20 September: St Martin’s church:
‘Ox jawbones and Blacksmith’s tongs: Saintly Bishops in Early Medieval Kent’
by Dr Diane Heath (CCCU)

Tuesday 21 September: St Paul’s church:
‘St Anselm’s philosophical legacy’ by Dr Ralph Norman (CCCU)

Wednesday 22 September: St Mildred’s church:
‘The importance of locality and identity for the cults of
Kent’s Anglo-Saxon female saints’
by Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh (CCCU)

Thursday 23 September: St Dunstan’s church:
‘Conflicting convictions: martyrs of the 16th century’
by Dr Doreen Rosman (retired University of Kent)

Friday 24 September: St Peter’s church:
‘In Becket’s shadow: late medieval Kentish minor and failed cults’
by Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh (CCCU)

Saturday 25 September: St Thomas RC church:
‘The role of clothing in Thomas Becket’s life and cult’
by Professor Rachel Koopmans (York University, Toronto)

For full details please see https://bit.ly/3s59igM or individual church’s websites
For the sake of vulnerable other people, please bring a mask, thank you.

Donations or any other arrangement will be organised by the respective churches for their benefit.

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Some Things We Can’t Think

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Frank Cottrell-Boyce

There’s a chance to see author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce when he gives this year’s Sir Harold Hood Memorial Lecture entitled ‘Some Things We Can’t Think’ on 3rd December 2020 6.30pm – 8.20pm

Frank will be talking about stories which tell the world who we are. What happens if we don’t get to tell our own stories? What happens if we don’t recognise ourselves in the stories that are told about us?

This year’s lecture will also combine with the premiere of our new short documentary by Martin Freeth, ‘Hidden Sentences: Voices of Prisoners’ Families’.

Following the film and lecture, there will be a Q&A session with Frank and some of the people with lived experience of the justice system who feature in the film.

This is a free event. Donations to the work of Pact are warmly welcomed and can be made online here. There will be a brief talk by Andy Keen-Downs, Pact CEO, about the work of the current work of the charity in support of people affected by imprisonment.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an award-winning storyteller. Frank Boyce was born into a Catholic family in Liverpool in 1959 and studied English at Oxford where he met Denise Cottrell, a fellow undergraduate. They married in Keble College chapel and together have seven children. Frank first worked as a television critic for Living Marxism magazine, and wrote episodes for Coronation Street and Brookside. As one of the most respected screenwriters working in the British film industry, Frank has written the screenplays for many feature films including Welcome to Sarajevo, Code 46, Butterfly Kiss, 24 Hour Party People and Goodbye Christopher Robin. His first novel, Millions, was based on his own screenplay for the film of the same name, and was published by Macmillan in 2004. In 2010, Frank co-presented the Papal Visit at Hyde Park with TV personality Carol Vorderman. Frank’s long-standing artistic collaboration with Danny Boyle included their work together to craft the Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2012 telling the story of Britain through a multi-media extravaganza. He has authored numerous children’s books including sequels to Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In 2004 he was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Millions, and in 2012 his novel The Unforgotten Coat won the Guardian Prize. Frank’s most recent children’s book, Runaway Robot, was published in 2019.

The Sir Harold Hood Memorial Lecture is held most years by Pact (Prison Advice and Care Trust) as an opportunity to celebrate the life and memory of a great friend and champion, the late Sir Harold Hood. The lecture seeks to contribute to public knowledge and understanding of how we as a society can make our prisons places in which individuals can achieve personal change and growth, and leave to live good lives, in stable and healthy relationships with family and the wider community.

This is the eighth lecture in memory of Sir Harold Hood. The first was held in the Chapel of HMP Brixton and was given by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Other lectures have been given by the late Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, Lucia do Rosario-Neil, Bishop Richard Moth, Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ, Dr Galena Rhoades (transcript not available), and His Honour Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, Recorder of London.

To find out more and book your place please go to: www.prisonadvice.org.uk/Event/hh2020

A Speaker on Israel and Palestine in Canterbury

Jeff Halper at St Paul’s Church, 7:30pm Monday 21^st May

Richard Llewellin, former Bishop of Dover, writes:

‘A very remarkable Israeli Jew, called Jeff Halper, is coming to speak in Canterbury during a visit to the UK. 

Having watched the demolition of a Palestinian home for what he considered no good reason, he started the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions.  This organisation has rebuilt countless numbers of Palestinian homes demolished by the Israeli authorities (some of which have been then demolished for a second, or even a third, time!). 

Jeff Halper is larger-than-life, an excellent speaker, and has very good things to say about the future of Israel and Palestine.  He is speaking at St Paul’s Church, Canterbury, on Monday, 21 May at 7:30 PM, and you will not be disappointed at his talk if you can manage to come and listen to him.’

What happened next? The Franciscan spirit after FISC.

View of the Library wing at the Franciscan International Study  Centre. (CD)

Brother Chris (CD) remained in Canterbury after the Franciscan International Study Centre closed. One of his duties was to find homes for the books and periodicals in the Library. He writes:

We eventually moved 20,000 books to Zimbabwe and 6,000 to Zambia and closed down the Study Centre. But the Franciscan Collection of 5,000 books was kept together and transferred to the library of St. Mary’s University in Twickenham, where archives and collections from other congregations are already curated.

Dr. Peter Tyler, as head of Spirituality there, asked also that we should organise a one day conference, on the topic of Rediscovering the Roots of Franciscan Spirituality. This will publicise the availability of the collection, and will take place on Saturday 12th May. More details can be found on St. Mary’s website. I am attaching a poster that should serve as an invitation to anyone interested in taking part.

Best wishes,

Chris.

CD. MMB.

 

Summer Talks at the Franciscan International Study Centre.

Friar Austin’s Spring and Summer talks on Jesus beyond Dogma continue this Monday  June 12 at 7.00 p.m. at the Franciscan International Study Centre, Giles Lane, Canterbury.

All are welcome to attend and join in the discussion!

There is ample parking at the Centre.

WT.

Spring Talks at the Franciscan International Study Centre.

Friar Austin’s Spring and Summer talks on Jesus beyond Dogma continue this Monday 5 June at 7.00 p.m. at the Franciscan International Study Centre, Giles Lane, Canterbury.

All are welcome to attend and join in the discussion!

There is ample parking at the Centre.

Spring Talks at the Franciscan International Study Centre.

Friar Austin’s Spring and Summer talks on Jesus beyond Dogma continue this Monday 8 May at 7.00 p.m. at the Franciscan International Study Centre, Giles Lane, Canterbury.

All are welcome to attend and join in the discussion!

There is ample parking at the Centre.

Spring Talks at the Franciscan International Study Centre.

 

Friar Austin’s Spring and Summer talks on Jesus beyond Dogma continue on Monday 1 May at 7.00 p.m. at the Franciscan International Study Centre, Giles Lane, Canterbury.

All are welcome to attend and join in the discussion!

There is ample parking at the Centre.

WT.

From 24 April: Spring Talks at the Franciscan International Study Centre.

Friar Austin’s Spring and Summer talks on Jesus beyond Dogma begin on Monday 24th April at 7.00 p.m. at the Franciscan International Study Centre, Giles Lane, Canterbury.

All are welcome to attend and join in the discussion!

There is ample parking at the Centre.

WT.

Mosaic at the Abbey of St Maurice, Valais, Switzerland.

 

Lectures at Saint Peter’s Methodist Church Canterbury

The Contemporary Theology Group convenes lectures at St Peter’s Methodist Church on a monthly basis for the first half of the year. Entry is £3 per person per lecture, and the evening begins at 7:45pm unless stated otherwise.

Wednesday 19th April Robert Willis (Dean of Canterbury Cathedral) – Is the Church in need of a new reformation?

For more information on any of these lectures, please contact John Bown, 01227 764876, j.bown230@talktalk.net