Canterbury

My dear Friends
After the peace and tranquillity of the sea, I moved on to busy Canterbury. My first visit. You could still hear the gulls crying overhead. Underneath the roundabout leading to the town there was a wonderful mural, depicting Canterbury's history, and explaining that in times gone by people from all over Europe and England would come to Canterbury to trade.

The High Street was incredibly packed, so I took the advice of someone I had spoken to in Ramsgate and stuck to the side streets. But not before I had seen the Cathedral, magnificent although overwhelming in its size. I was lucky to find three Anglican guides who explained to much of the history. When I said I was full of hope for Anglican-Catholic reconciliation she took me down to the spot where Thomas a Beckett was murdered in the Cathedral, around 1100, and showed me where Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Runcie had knelt together and prayed. So we did too and it was a moment of great grace.

Then I went down to the crypt, a place of silence and prayer and where you were invited to pray for Peace. Back up at the top, I went to the choir, where the original monks had said their devotions and which faced East-I thought the whole looked like a Sephardic Synagogue or even a Mosque-the guide was intrigued.We stopped on the hour for prayer, just like they do in Ely, which was recited by the Rector, but the Cathedral was quite empty.

Next day I found the Catholic church in Burgate and sat in the little garden outside. The outside facade was lovely and lots of people passing took photos. although the building only dates from around 1847. But it's lovely inside too, with a kind of monastic feel, and one or two of Thomas's relics.( I confess,coming from a Jewish background I have never cared for relics.) I stayed for Mass, conducted by the elderly, but rather radiant Fr George from Dublin.

Walking round the streets I felt happy and found the people 'soft' and approachable. I ended up taking a trip on the river, which was fascinating. We floated past all the old monastic buildings, including the Dominican Priory and also the 'hospital' which was where the pilgrims had a free night's board, albeit uncomfortable. The river Stour was very different to the river Cam.

In a shop next to the Catholic church I was given a present of a pilgim badge, and I felt as proud as if I had been to Santiago de Compostella in Spain, or Jerusalem or elsewhere. I know I will go again.

Shalom from
Sister Gila

A pilgrimage continued

My dear Friends
On Sunday morning I went to the local Catholic church. I was greeted warmly as I went in. I sat beside a lady who told me that she had been to Israel and would like to go to the Reform Synagogue in Ramsgate. (I meant to tell you that I had attended a service there on the previous evening and it was very moving.)

The Mass was taken by a visiting French priest, now in Algeria. Unlike my church back in Cambridge, there was an organ and a choir and even a pulpit! The first reading was taken from the book of Kings, about Elijah and the presence of God he hears, not in the fire or the thunder but in the 'still small voice.' It is a theme which has run throughout my life, and the voice I heard in a graveyard near the sea which brought me into the Church in 1988/1989.

After the Mass I jumped on a bus, to discover it was going back to Broadstairs. The folk festival was in full swing there and we bowled along and I had a lovely chat to a local man.Once there I spent hours wandering the town, into second hand bookshops, and olde worlde tea shops. I met a delightful English lady there, who is a Buddhist and who is going to dicover why there is no Hebrew writing on the Montefiore Synagogue in the woods in Ramsgate.

Everyone was eating fish and chips.I sat near the sea and from my post could see the Morris men dancing on the pier. Then the Morris ladies danced right beside me. I chatted to a nice Anglican lady from Ramsgate. Sat in a cafe in one of the oldest buildings in Broadstairs and determined to go back. Finally I went right through the town and through the York Gate, which must have been the entrance to the town at one time.1774 was written on it. As I passed through I got the whiff of smugglers and later dicovered that The 39 Steps was written there.
To be continued
Shalom from
Sister Gila

A pilgrimage

My dear Friends

I haven't journeyed very far away, but I had an interesting and marvellous time.I started off in a place I last went to when i was eight-Ramsgate, on the coast of Kent. I had visited the Synagogue there as a child and it made a deep impression on me. It was founded by Sir Moses Montefiore,from a Sephardic Jewish family from Italy. He built a house on the cliffs in Ramsgate and Queen Victoria was one of his guests.

My guesthouse was one minute from the sea and the weather was glorious. I tagged along with a mother and her daughter and followed them down the steep steps to the sea, where I paddled to my heart's content. After a couple of hours, in which the little girl ran in and out of the sea in great delight, I moved on and found a congenial restaurant, where they said I could bring my guitar next time if I liked.

The next day I discovered that there was a folk week in Broadstairs, the next town. I started on the beach again, talking to a nice English family at the cafe, and then walking to Broadstairs with the sea on my right. Again i chatted to a nice English couple, who knew Cambridge. From the town bandstand a crowd was entertained with the children and we all ate ice creams and bags of lovely chips. I was having a lot of fun and was quite out of my normal routine.

I wandered through the town, passing merrymakers along the way, avoiding crowded pubs but finding a nice little cafe at the edge of the town.I talked to an Austrian lady from Vienna and her son who were doing the coastal tour. I took a taxi, quite inexpensive, back to Ramsgate, and rested for a while.

(To be continued)

Shalom from

Sister Gila

Holiday

My dear Friends
I am going away tomorrow to a place near the English Channel, then an historic location and I will bring you up-to-date when I return on the 13th.

Be well
Sister Gila