A luxury Lenten retreat for £950? Come on, Canterbury Cathedral. You can’t be serious…

Fergus Butler-Gallie suggest some other ecclesiastical-themed breaks that could also come with a hefty price tag

This week Canterbury Cathedral, the mother church of Anglicanism, publicised that it is offering the chance to spend Holy Week - the holiest, most serious part of Lent, when Christians traditionally fast, give money to the poor and seek forgiveness for their sins - at a “luxury” four-night retreat. Featuring “sumptuous three-course dinners” and the possibility of “special access” to Most Rev Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, himself, the ”exclusive” and “intimate gathering” costs an alms-busting £950 per head.

It doesn’t sound very serious and, although Lent is a serious time in the Church calendar, it made me think. Here are some alternative religious-themed retreats in the same, presumably unserious, vein, that draw on the Church of England’s past: