There is an opportunity to bring music to even more people through this new Ramsgate fundraising campaign, "The Song Started Here".

Maintaining and expanding the excellent high-quality music at Pugin's church and Shrine of St Augustine, Ramsgate, is a great opportunity.

Music has been broadcast from here on BBC Radio, and is available on CD. Chant was sung here for a century and a half by monks, and that tradition is continuing.

Gregorian Chant - the foundation of so much of Western music - was first heard in England on the shores beneath St Augustine's, Ramsgate. St Augustine arrived here in AD 597, and it is from this mission that so much of English culture has flourished, including music, science, writing, law, architecture, art, and more!

Polyphony is sung by excellent singers here on many occasions each year. They sing for concerts, as well as liturgies and services in the church.

The organ is being restored and brought up to higher standards, and we have the potential to spread excellent music to more people, to run workshops, and to involve local schools and groups in musical education.

By funding this project, St Augustine's can be a home to excellent music for many years to come.

We are walking the "Way of St Augustine" - a walking route between Canterbury Cathedral and the Shrine of St Augustine - on 3rd September. The route is 17 miles long, and we will walk it in one day. We will begin at Canterbury Cathedral (founded by St Augustine), and travel via the abbey that St Augustine co-founded with King St Ethelbert, St Martin's Church, Fordwich, the Wantsum marshes, Minster-in-Thanet, St Augustine's Cross, and finish at the Shrine of St Augustine.

This route emulates (in reverse) St Augustine's travels from Thanet to Canterbury in AD 597, and is also reminiscent of the journey pilgrims take from Santiago, Spain, to Finisterre on the coast.

This is a good walk for a good cause - please support us!