Today we marked
Candlemas, or the Presentation of Christ in the temple (Luke 2:22-40) (Alternatively, Candlemas may be marked this coming
Thursday or next Sunday).
There was a really
moving moment at the end of our service this morning, as some seventy or so people
moved from their pews to gather around the large, marble font, holding lit
candles, and singing the Nunc dimittis.
Old people—like Simeon and Anna in the temple. Young parents—like Mary and
Joseph bringing the six-week old Jesus to the temple—juggling their baby on one
arm, a candle in the other hand. A scattering of Malaysians, Nigerians, and a
good number of Iranians alongside the British—for the child in our midst is a
light to lighten the gentile nations.
It felt like a minority community who
finds and strengthens its identity in its ritual. And it seemed to me that this
is a very good place for the Church of England to find itself right now. Not
taking a defensive, inward-looking stance; but rediscovering itself.
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