St George!
The patron saint of England
...and Ethiopia,
and Moldova, and Palestine, and Turkey...
and Georgia, which is even named after him...
(and a few more!)
Whatever the facts and legends surrounding him, St George really isn't all that 'English'.
In fact, he was almost certainly born in what is now Turkey and never actually came to England.
Thinking about the worldwide effort at the moment to minimise the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and the huge variety of nationalities seen in the NHS and working to produce food - to name but two - it's clear that we do best, as people, when we all work together.
I wonder if today we might celebrate St George's Day, and as we applaud the NHS and keyworkers (if we do so) tonight, we might give thanks for the diversity that makes our country so wonderful.
A prayer for today:
Faithful God,
who fulfilled the promises of Easterby sending us your Holy Spirit,
and made known to every race and nation the way of
eternal life;
open our lips by your Spirit,
that every tongue may tell of your glory,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
[Prayer © The Archbishops' Council, and found here.]
♫ Elgar's Ave verum corpus
No comments:
Post a Comment