A discussion starter for those who minister and are ministered to in the C of E
The Church of England has been calling the Fourth Sunday in Lent “Mothering Sunday” at least since the mid-Victorian era. However, apparently no special provision was made for it (by extra collect and readings) in the Christian Year until the arrival of Common Worship, where it is offered as an alternative to Lent IV.
The fact that it is offered as an alternative to Lent IV reveals that the Collect and Bible Readings in Common Worship (& the Common Ecumenical Lectionary) do not lend themselves to the idea of “mothering”, that is, of showing motherly care and supervision. In contrast, the ancient eucharistic Lectionary in The Book of Common Prayer (1662) does contain the idea of “Mothering Sunday” in that the Epistle (Galatians 4:21ff.) speaks eloquently of the Jerusalem above which is our mother. The Church perfected by the grace of the Father, the mediation of the Son and the sanctification of the Holy Ghost is motherly towards all sinners seeking salvation and the baptized being deified & made holy. This theme arising from the Epistle on Lent IV is a great encouragement to the keeping of Lent faithfully, as the faithful look to the redemption of the Church in the Atonement of Calvary.
There is a beautiful Collect in the ancient Mozarabic Sacramentary on this theme:
“Grant us, O Lord, to rejoice in beholding the bliss of the heavenly Jerusalem; that as she is the home and mother of the multitude of the saints, we also may be counted worthy to have our portion within her; through thine only-begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Apparently the real or practical reason why “Mothering Sunday” is introduced into the new Christian Year of Common Worship at Lent IV is in order to cater for the demand for celebrating “Mother’s Day”, as business and commerce in the U.K. (in contrast to the Church as Church) have decided to call this day. (Note that in the U.S.A. “Mother’s Day” is the second Sunday in May and is thus totally distinct from Lent and also not in the Christian Year as such. Even so churches take note of it for it is so prominent in the culture). The readings selected for the “Mothering Sunday” of the C of E in CW are all to do with human mothers; the Collect is to do with families; and the Post- Communion is to do with the motherly care of God.
What appears to happen on “Mothering Sunday” in much of the C. of E. is that there is a celebration of mothers (& grandmothers) in a well-attended service and they are given presents of flowers and the like. Prayers (taken from Collections of Prayers used by clergy) tend to thank God for mothers and ask for him to bless them. In all it is a happy kind of experience.
Let us be clear! While it is good to honour parents, to love our mothers, to thank God for what they do rightly for their children and to pray regularly for mothers and fathers, it is quite another thing to celebrate mothers (or fathers) in divine worship.
The Mother that is celebrated in Sacred Scripture is the perfected Church of God considered as the One who gives new birth to sinners in baptism and who nourishes the newly born by Word and Sacrament. In Liturgy and Tradition there is a certain celebration also of the Blessed Virgin Mary in her perfected state in heaven as the mother of the faithful. Likewise of the apostles, saints & martyrs.
But the Church of God in her worship does not celebrate the imperfect. She prays for sinners; she prays for mothers and fathers, and she prays for all disciples and pilgrims. She does not celebrate human motherhood (except as perfected in the BVM) and she does not celebrate human fatherhood, not even in Joseph, adoptive father of Jesus.
The great danger of the [practical and unthinking] conversion of Mothering Sunday into Mother’s Day, which the Readings of Common Worship and the offering of this theme as an alternative to Lent encourage, is that the Church ends up celebrating the imperfect and sinful. Whatever excellencies and virtues we see in mothers, the godly amongst them are very conscious that they are sinners and have yet to be sanctified and perfected by grace. No godly mother wishes to be celebrated in a service of worship as if she were a perfected saint. Worship is only of God, the Creator, Redeemer and Judge, and celebration of the creaturely is only of the perfection of the creature.
Further, to have this false celebration in the middle of Lent does much to distort this special time of ascetic discipline and to discourage the right keeping of Lent as preparation for the joyous celebration of Easter.
If the Church cannot keep “Mothering Sunday” in a way that is in harmony with Scripture and holy tradition, it is best that she keeps clear of all compromises of it in terms of “Mother’s Day”! At the same time she must ever encourage mothers and fathers to seek to be the best they can possibly be for their children’s sake and for the praise of God, the compassionate Father.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.),
Christ Church, Biddulph Moor & St Anne's, Brown Edge
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