A lofty 12th-century quire is perhaps one of the last places you would expect to meet Liam Gallagher. This one assured me that he was not one half of Oasis bunking off from their sold-out reunion tour, but a priest from Maidstone who shares a name with the abrasive rocker. Given how heaving Canterbury Cathedral was on 7 July, it was only natural I would brush shoulders with a few celebrities.
While waiting to enter the Mass, I had my first encounter with Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Anglican Bishop of Dover. Like the Gallaghers, she has been no stranger to public spats. The Jamaican-born prelate was driving away from the Archbishop’s Palace toward gaggles of queuing Catholics; sensibly, she slowed down and politely asked queuers to step aside to permit her passage. While I am sure her personal instincts were at play, it certainly helps that the cathedral operates its own police service; its driveways are among the most surveilled thoroughfares in the country.
