We'd been before – over 30 years ago – but this time chose to have guided tour of Canterbury's magnificent cathedral. Brian – himself well and truly retired – took us round, and gave us a thorough history lesson ranging back to the well-known Becket and Augustine.
But it was the Corona Chapel, now named The Chapel of Saints and Martyrs of Our Own Time, we found most moving. We loved the bronze by Ugandan scupltress, Rosemary Namuli, – The Burial of Christ. It was the women who bore his body to the tomb!
We paused to remember at least two people we have come close to over the years and martyred for their faith. Graham Staines, an Australian missionary to people affected by leprosy in Orissa, India. He and his two sons were burned alive while out on a weekend together in 1999. Then Bo Brekke, Norwegian leader of The Salvation Army in Pakistan, murdered in 2007, it seems, in response to standing up for what is right.
We knelt in the quietness of the chapel and gave thanks for them and others who have suffered for the Faith.
