Bishop Robinson's Second Speaking Event in the UK

Bishop Gene Robinson is to visit St Rumwold in Bonnington, Kent this Friday evening to speak in the St Rumwold lecture series.

The parish has been a place of Christian worship since CE 796. The architecture and materials used in the construction of the church suggest a Norman date, but the size of the building is an indicator of a Saxon origin which may support the notion that it is the oldest church on Romney Marsh.

Here is a view of the nave looking east towards the chancel, largely unaltered other than a two light south window which was inserted at a cost of 28s 8d (pre-decimal currency) under the will of William Kynett in 1452. The three early Norman windows in the east wall are arranged in unusual positions, as is the double piscina from no later than the 13th century. With room for only 100 people, its all bound to be rather intimate!

St Rumwold, btw, was a child saint born in Northampton in c.600 CE. Here is a longer description in Butler's Lives of the Saints.