Mothering Friday/Sunday

March 30, 2014April 22, 2014 Chris

Two babies – Calvin and Alan – were baptized on Mothering Friday morning , an occasion made more special with the Rev’d Dr Deborah Chapman as our preacher. For the first time in my ministry I had to respond to public disagreement from the congregation with the preacher (some would have called it heckling!), but Deborah kept calm and offered dialogue after the service. She was emphasizing that though we call God Father, purely masculine attributes are not an adequate understanding of God and she highlighted a number of biblical texts that highlighted feminine qualities in the Godhead.

Perhaps the fundamental text is Genesis 1:27:

God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them,
male and female he created them.

In the evening, being the fifth Sunday of the month, we had a Service of Readings and Hymns to Celebrate Mary. I used this photo of a painting by Tricia’s sister and brother-in-law – a gift for Tricia’s recent birthday for the front page of the order of service.

In the evening we went out for a meal at Al Arisha, a Lebanese restaurant, as a farewell to David and Yvette Knight, who have been resident in Bahrain and part of the Cathedral family for very many years. Their final Sunday will be Palm Sunday. It was especially moving to meet Yves, Yvette’s brother who had been very seriously ill and for whom we had been praying regularly as a community for several months, on Sunday 6^th April. The texts for that Sunday about resurrection to new life seemed especially appropriate.