Seeker

I am old enough to remember Wednesday 6 February 1952. I was not old enough to fully comprehend the significance of what the head teacher of my junior school was telling us. We had been called into the school hall for an unscheduled assembly. This was unusual. I remember wondering why. Was it an emergency? The teachers looked solemn. They had already heard what we were about to be told, "The King has died." We must also have been told that Princess Elizabeth would now be Queen, but I don't remember that. Or perhaps we weren't - the Accession Council did not meet until 5 pm that afternoon. Perhaps our head teacher was carefully observing protocol before the official proclamation, although the succession was not in doubt. I do remember we were told to expect grown-ups to be feeling upset and if we passed shops on our way home from school we would find them to be closed.  I remember a sense of shock, although certainly not grief. In my child world King George VI w...

Faithfulness is the focus for prayer for the General Synod of the Church of England which starts its extraordinary session in London in 2 days time. It's the 7th day of the  NovemberNovena  days of prayer for the Church of England General Synod. For an introduction to this see  Prayer for General Synod: love and joy . I have posted the prayers plus some Bible verses every day of this so far. Scroll down the blog archive for November in the right hand side bar to see the posts from previous days. Today let us pray  for faithfulness of heart and for faithful Church leaders. Love the Lord your God with all your hear and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matthew 22: 37 Only fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you. 1 Samuel 12:24 Image Credit: David King, CC License

Image Wikipedia 60 years ago today a 25 year old woman, on holiday with her husband in Africa, received the news that her father had died. She had known since she was about 10 how his death would change her life, and that it was likely that one day these words would be spoken, "The King is dead. Long live the Queen!" My father died just after my 26th  birthday. His death was expected, but still a huge shock. I cannot imagine how the new Queen Elizabeth coped with taking on the weight of her role and duties as monarch at the same time as coping with her private grief. I am old enough to remember 6 February 1952. I was a young child, but at school. The headmistress called the whole school into the hall for a special assembly and told us the King had died. I remember how shocked and upset she and other teachers seemed to be. She must have said that we now had a Queen, but I don't remember that. What I remember is that she explained we should expect to find that all t...

Today is the feast of 'The Presentation of Christ in the Templ e'. This feast is also known as 'Candlemas'. Its about the story told by Luke in chapter 2: 22-40 of his gospel, featuring Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and 2 elderly people, Simon and Anna.  The old woman Anna is the one who often doesn't get remembered as much as the others, but she deserves to be.  In Tissot's painting (shown here) Anna's arms are raised in prayer and praise as she saw the sign of her deepest hope fulfilled. On 14th January 2012, my #digidisciple post at the  BigBible   project  'Anna: A Life of Prayer ' was published in my monthly series 'Blogging Women of the Gospels'. This series about women of the gospels is intended for individual or group Biblical reflection or discussion. So in case you might find that helpful, h ere is what I wrote in that post about Anna: Do you know who you are? What do others see in you? How do you think God sees you?...