15th March 2021

Today our house is filled with flowers, and cards. I miss our children, and their appreciation of me as shown on Mothering Sunday is heart-warming. We have had brief weekly ‘check up’ visits from Kate, but it is exactly a year since we saw Jeremy, and six months since we saw Steve. Their physical absence is made bearable through Skype, but does not make up for the missing hugs and kisses.

Virtual communication has been invaluable through this long bleak period, enabling families and friends to visually keep in contact, thus partially filling the vacuum caused by “Staying Safe”.

This is true for the community of the church too. Although I have appreciated the weekly on-line service, and the tremendous amount of work carried out by the team, that goes into its preparation, I long for the day when we can be back together physically, without face masks and are able to raise our voices together singing the praises of God.

The Mothering Sunday tradition has its roots in the days when girls from poorer families were sent into service in the homes of the wealthier households. They were allowed home on the third Sunday of Lent bringing small gifts of flowers for their mothers, and to return to their parish churches, their mother church.

We shall get a feel of that tradition when we are back together again for worship as a community. The Church, the body of Christ, gathered together expresses the Motherhood of God. Through this we experience His caring, the supportive, and nurturing of the Holy Spirit working in each of us.

Elizabeth Webb