Praying God’s mercy to light the candle of motherhood
by Ruth Gledhill, Christian Today:
Mothering Sunday in the Christian church and Mother’s Day in the US are two different festivals. Here in the UK, the two concepts have become conflated in the minds of many in the secular world. Mothering Sunday, a day when the servant classes would traditionally be given the day off to visit their “mother” church and see their families, tends to be celebrated here in the same way that the later Mother’s Day is marked in the US, with cards, flowers and breakfast n bed.
A survey by, ironically, the established Church of Engand, illustrated how the secular and religious concepts have become at the same time conflated yet remain detached from each other. The late Princess Diana came top of of a Church of England poll of who is the “ideal” mother, with the Virgin Mary in eighth place only. Even the fictional Molly Weasley, Ron and Ginny’s mother in the Harry Potter novels, and Mary Poppins came ahead of Mary.
When researchers at ComRes asked more than 2,000 British adults what is or was the most important thing their mother has ever done for them, the biggest proportion, a third, said it was that their mother “was always there to support me when I needed her”.
The Church is doing the right thing in trying to personalise the concept, and thereby make itself and its message more “relatable” to the increasingly secular young generations.
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