This afternoon we took a coach ride and walk, a long walk, to St Augustine’s Cross at Cliffsend. This cross erected in the ‘Victorian Celtic’ style – that is, in a fashion that the Victorians thought the Celts might have used as a cross, but adding images whereas the Celts only used symbols.
[Ramsgate and white cliffs]
The cross is supposed to be near where St Augustine might have landed on the English coast and probably met King Æthelberht under an oak tree (so the story has it). If Æthelberht and Augustine had as much difficulty finding the spot as we did, then the story is highly apocryphal.
[Fr Shane Hubner SCP at St Augustine’s Cross]
On meeting the King, Augustine preached his first sermon in England. The window below from St Augustine’s Church in nearby Ramsgate suggests the King was not unduly impressed, however he did subsequently agree to being baptised in St Martin’s Canterbury.
[Mother Pirrial Clift SCP crosses the grain fields to the Cross]
Having walked some distance to locate the cross, we thought it would be a good place for a group photo.
Father M 