Today is Mothering Sunday, which is an excellent occasion to be celebrating a baptism, the baptism of young Derian. But before we talk about little Derian and his family, I feel I have to begin by telling you about Mothering Sunday, which isn’t the same thing as Mother’s Day. They are different holidays that are celebrated a month or two apart.
Mother’s Day, which is celebrated on the second Sunday in May, was introduced an American lady by the name of Anna Jarvis. She believed – and quite rightly – that mothers deserved an annual celebration in their honour; it was an idea that she had frequently talked about with her mother and after her mother’s death, Anna Jarvis organised the first Mother’s Day in 1913. The idea very quickly caught on, both across the United States and around the world – so much so, that Anna Jarvis herself quickly became disillusioned with the commercialism that Mother’s Day gave rise to and later on in life she even tried to have the holiday rescinded. Ironically, however, she ended her days in a sanitarium where her medical bills were paid by people in the floral and greeting card industries.
In England Anna Jarvis found a fan in an Anglican woman with high-church leanings, from rural Nottinghamshire: Constance Adelaide Smith was not only the daughter of a clergyman but her four brothers were also ordained priests. Constance Smith combined Anna Jarvis’s Mother’s Day with a tradition dating from the mediaeval church, to produce the slightly different variation of the holiday that came to be celebrated throughout Britain and the Commonwealth, and which came to be known as Mothering Sunday.
The mediaeval tradition was that of Laetare Sunday. laetare means ‘Be glad’, and it takes its name from the fact that two of the traditions readings on this Sunday both began with the word ‘Be glad’’, or ‘rejoice’ – even though ‘Be glad’ Sunday falls slap bang in the middle of Lent. ‘Rejoice ye with Jerusalem; and be ye glad for her, all ye that delight in her’ begins the passage from Isaiah; and Psalm 122 begins: ‘I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord’. The custom on this Sunday was for people to return to the church where they had been baptised. At the Reformation, Cranmer kept the same ‘Be glad’ readings for this Sunday and the tradition continued even after it had been dropped elsewhere in Europe: hence Mothering Sunday in origin had less to do with honouring one’s mother and more to do with honouring mother church.
Constance Smith spelled out the purpose of Mothering Sunday, as she envisaged it: it was intended to celebrate four things: mother church, our own mothers, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and finally, mother nature.
So there you have it: Mother’s Day celebrates motherhood, it happens in the United States and across the world, and is a largely secular holiday; Mothering Sunday revives a medieval religious tradition, is celebrated in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth, and it is celebrated in March, three weeks before Easter.
All of which brings us to today, and to Derian’s christening. In a minute we shall be welcoming him into mother church, by pouring holy water on his head. It is my prayer that this church will indeed be Mother Church to little Derian. Looking around I am amazed at the number of children, and mostly very small children, there are in this church: one Sunday a few weeks ago there were more than twenty. One of the biggest challenges this church faces is going to bring up this new generation of children in the Christian faith. Our resources are meagre: we have no dedicated space for our Sunday school; our thanks go out to our teachers, Ruth and Kalina – but we need more volunteers; and our thanks go out to all the parents who bring their children here Sunday by Sunday.
And so, as we gather round the font to celebrate the Christening of Derian, let us remember that this sacred moment is not only about this precious child, but about each of us—this community of faith—committing to walk alongside Derian, Augusta, and Lawrence. The church is called to be a place of encouragement, a sanctuary of teaching, and a wellspring of love, nurturing Derian—and all of our children, and indeed all of us—in our journey of faith. May we all be faithful in this calling, and may Derian’s life be a testament to the love and faithfulness of our Lord. Amen.