Archbishop of Canterbury to preach at St Alfege to mark millennial commemorations

THE ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury will lead a service at St Alfege Church next month to mark the one thousandth anniversary of the martyrdom of St Alfege.

Following a service of welcome at Southwark Cathedral on April 19th, Rowan Williams, will travel to Greenwich by river with the Bishops of Southwark, Woolwich and Bergen. The Millennial Service, which will be a ticketed event, will take place at 4.30pm.

Regia Anglorum will set up a re-enactment of Anglo Saxon village life over the following weekend, giving local people the chance to see how life was a thousand years ago. There will be a replica Viking boat and lots of activities to try such as coin minting, singing, craft demonstrations and dancing.

On Sunday 22nd April, BBC Radio 4’s Sunday morning service will be broadcast from St Alfege. A church has stood on the site of St Alfege 1000 years. The current church, which is almost 300 years was the first to be designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Reverend Chris Moody told Greenwich.co.uk

“We’re trying to make as open an event as possible whether people can come into the church for services or whether they want to engage in the other activities as well.”

Alfege was the Archbishop of Canterbury when he was martyred by Viking raiders in 1012 who killed him using animal bones.

The visit by the Archbishop of Canterbury comes less than a week before the Church of England’s Supreme Governor, HM The Queen, visits Greenwich to see the restored Cutty Sark.