While it was yet twilight a figure appeared silently and suddenly on a little hill above the city, dark against the fading darkness...
The pebble beach next to the harbour at Dover may not be the most obvious place for a religious gathering. In his famous poem of 1867,Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold described religious belief as rising and falling like a wave upon the shore.
In Arnold's view, the tide was turning on the “Sea of Faith” in England as it was across much of Europe.
Yet on 10 September 2024, around 100 people gathered for an outdoor Mass on Dover Beach to mark the 800th anniversary of the Franciscan friars arriving in Britain.
