Thursday, December 15, 2011

Canterbury Cathedral

During our last week in London we took a trip to Canterbury. No one really wanted to go, seeing as it was our last week, but oh well. We went to the Cathedral which is pretty significant because the Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Anglican Church (Well technically its the king or queen, but in reality it's the Archbishop that runs the church). Canterbury Cathedral is also famous because Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered inside the cathedral. It has become a place of pilgrimage, but who knows how many people come to actually worship his place of death. His death was also controversial because the king, inadvertently, ordered it. Apparently King Henry II said off hand "who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" And his knights took it literally. They surely didn't want to do it in the actual cathedral, but Becket ran away, knelt to pray in the cathedral, and the knights came in and slaughtered him. During evensong, meaning people were totally around, listening to the choir sing. Crazy.

Here's a memorial for him. Seems kind of morbid to me.



Our tour guide, he was a character.

Christmas nativity!


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