Winchelsea Parish Church 

Dear Fellow Parishioners,

The life of our Patron - St. Thomas of Canterbury - is well known. A controversial life, one parishioner even called him a “troublemaker” and I guess in some ways he was. He certainly wasn’t perfect (not that perfection is the definition of a saint) nonetheless he was strong in his defence of the Church against the claims of a monarch determined to control the church for his own ends (not all these ends were bad in themselves) riding rough shod over the liberties of the church. For his defence of the freedom of the church emissaries of King Henry II murdered Thomas in his Cathedral Church of Christ on 29th December 1170. It was a violent desecration, both of a human life and a holy place. It has been described as one of the most momentous events in mediaeval European history and it resulted in the public humiliation of King Henry who on 12th July 1174 did public penance at the tomb of the martyred Bishop. Historians are at one in maintaining that Henry did not specifically order the four knights to murder Thomas and the records also indicate that Henry was both horrified and grief stricken at the events that took place on that cold December evening in Canterbury Cathedral.

It is interesting to learn that Winchelsea (Old) was indirectly involved. Ancient authorities maintain that two of the murderers travelling by boat across the channel from France landed at Winchelsea and joined forces with their two other partners in crime who had made shore in Dover at Saltwood Castle where they planned the final details of their foul deed before travelling on to Canterbury. Perhaps this explains the principal dedication of the Parish Church.

On Sunday 4th July, we shall be celebrating our Patronal Festival, not on the anniversary of  St. Thomas’ martyrdom  because of its proximity to Christmas and the difficulty of doing such an important day justice, but two days before the body of the Saint was translated from its original place in the Cathedral to a magnificent shrine. The date: 7th July 1220.

We shall give thanks in the presence of the town, the Mayor and Jurats, and we hope many parishioners, for a man who though far from perfect, was single minded in his duty to God and the defence of the liberty of the Church. I remind you of some of his final words before the fatal blows were struck: “I am quite prepared to embrace death if the Church can find freedom and peace through my blood” and just before the moment “to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the blessed martyr St. Denys* and St. Alphege* and to the patrons of this place I commend my spirit and the cause of the Church”.

In these days when the voice of the Church is often unheard or mocked, Thomas of Canterbury, Bishop and Martyr, provides a powerful and eloquent example to Christ and His Gospel. The Church of God has a solemn duty to present the Gospel and its demands without fear or favour. People may not agree with what they hear but then the way of Christ has never been easy, it is after all the way of the cross. May our response, like St. Thomas before us, be discerned in the Lord’s own words to those who would travel with him “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever saves his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it”

In September 1538 the shrine was demolished, the bones dispersed and St. Thomas’ treasure carted off to Westminster. All liturgical commemoration was banned and a royal proclamation announced Becket to have been a rebel and a traitor. A spurious and blasphemous trial was held to ‘prove’ these allegations. The zeal with which an arrogant and greedy Henry VIII and his servants attempted to eradicate all memory of St. Thomas of Canterbury is, however, merely testimony to the example that he had provided for generations that there is a law higher than the will of worldly princes and tyrants: and that is that all tyranny, in whatever guise it manifests itself must, in God’s name, be resisted even unto death.

Howard Cocks

*St. Denys. Missionary and first Bishop of Paris martyred c250AD.

*St. Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury martyred by the Danes in 1012 at Greenwich