If it’s Mothering Sunday it’s the middle of Lent. Mothering Sunday, 14 March this year, is about both remembering our mothers and acknowledging our Mother Church. This is why in normal times at some parish churches the congregation marks Mothering Sunday by going outside, joining hands and surrounding the building. They hug their church. But […]

Is tonight Twelfth Night or is it tomorrow Wednesday? Tonight Tuesday used to be Twelfth Night for everybody but by the time of the Restoration in the mid-17th century it had become the custom to keep Twelfth Night on 6 January. Samuel Pepys wrote on 6 January 1665: ‘At night home, being Twelfthnight, and there […]

Mary and Joseph are said to have set out today from Nazareth on their 90 mile journey to Bethlehem which they reach on 24 December. It was once the custom in monasteries to toll the loudest bell as each of the O Antiphons was sung over the coming days to remind people that Mary and […]

The feast of Our Lady of Loreto, also called the Translation of the Holy House, today Thursday 10 December marks the arrival at Loreto in Italy of the house where Mary lived and heard from the angel that she was to give birth to the Messiah. The little house arrived in 1294. The journey of […]

Advent is not Christmas but this weekend 5-6 December we can think about Father Christmas because he is derived from St Nicholas. Or is he St Nicholas as in Holland where last night children this Saturday will put out their shoes hoping for a present? This year St Nicholas does not get his usual a […]

As we enter Advent, the first weekday Monday 30 November is St Andrew’s Day St Andrew is the patron of Amalfi , Barbados, Greece, Russia, Scotland, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul and fishermen. It’s a holiday in Barbados where the crest of the coat of arms is two sugar cane stalks forming a St Andrew’s […]

Advent starts tonight as darkness falls. Saturday Evensong is the first of Advent. Tomorrow is Advent Sunday when we light the first candle on the wreath. But it’s not Christmas. However, it could be the start of a Slow Christmas as we try to live out the lovely special days and significant steps of Advent […]

This last Sunday before Advent is known as Stir Up Sunday due to the Book of Common Prayer collect for today. This old name is much used now as it is linked to the idea of stirring the Christmas pudding although most puddings will have been maturing for some time. Many Anglicans can expect hear […]

Corpus Christi meaning Body of Christ is a feast of celebration and thanksgiving for the institution of the Holy Communion. It is kept today 11 June, a Thursday, to recall Maundy Thursday and we celebrate again because normally we can be more joyful now than in Holy Week. The Mass has been hard to find […]

Trinity Sunday was first celebrated by Bishop Stephen of Liège in the early 10th century and by the twelfth century the custom had spread to France where it was observed at Cluny Abbey. Archbishop Thomas Becket introduced it to England having been consecrated and as Archbishop at Canterbury Cathedral on the Sunday after Pentecost (or […]