Mothering Sunday 2013
Bridestowe, Lydford, Germansweek, 10/3/2013
Introduction to reading
In previous centuries, Mothering Sunday was the day when, among other things, servants were given a day off to visit their mother church. (The ‘Mother Church’ idea is alive and well - eg, wedding couples choose to ‘come home’ to be married; Christmas Eve reunions, etc....)
100 years ago a vicar's daughter, Constance Penswick Smith, from Coddington, Nottinghamshire, was inspired to lobby for a revival of Mothering Sunday, going on to establish the Mothering Sunday Movement. Her initiative put the day on the national agenda again. [1]
We all need Mothering at times, although it's something we can take for granted. Mothering Sunday gives us the chance to give thanks, to say the words that usually go unspoken.
What are some characteristics of mothers we celebrate on Mothering Sunday....?
Reading: Exodus 2.1-10 (Moses’ mother hides him in the bulrushes)
What are the characteristics of Moses’ mother? (clever, cunning, determined, etc.....)
CUTS to welfare benefits are undermining motherhood, the Bishop of Dudley, the Rt Revd David Walker, has said. It was time to get "angry" and stop sentimentalising mothers this Mothering Sunday, he suggested.
Speaking on the centenary of Constance Penswick Smith’s Mothering Sunday Movement, Bishop Walker said that the Government's policies were an attack on mothers' efforts to feed and nurture their children.
He said: "I'm not feeling very sentimental about motherhood this year, at a time when more and more mothers are needing to turn to church-run Food Banks to see their children are adequately fed.
"And I'm not very sentimental when I think about the mothers who are going to lose their homes this year because they fall victim to the bedroom tax, or the cap on benefits. [2]
The bishop’s words remind us that some mothers struggle against many odds to do the best for their children. That they have to use all their energy, all their skill, all their cunning and determination, and so on, to make sure their children are provided for. These are the sorts of characteristics which are undersold on Mothering Sunday, but are crucial to the survival and development of so many children. Bishop Walker:
"My own mother is no longer with us, but I vividly remember her determined single-handed efforts to allow me to stay on at school after 16 and get my A levels. A mixture of what she could earn from her work and the state benefits that she received just kept us afloat. For her sake, I'm not sentimental at all about motherhood this year, I'm actually rather angry about the ways our society is undermining it." [1] and [2]
So let’s give thanks for Moses’ mother who plotted the path to her child’s survival and development, and stopped at nothing to make sure it happened. And let’s affirm and support those mothers in our society who in their own ways are doing just the same for their children today.
Notes
[1] Bishop of Dudley expresses Mothering Sunday concerns, Diocese of Worcester website, 7/3/2013
[2] ‘Support mothers with anger, not sentiment’, Church Times, 8 March 2013
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