Pomp and ceremony featuring ME!

As a born and bred Windsor girl I love a bit of ceremony. When I first starting dating my husband we had a competition to decide who was from the best town (because we're not at all competitive!). His offering was watching a march of papier-mâché giants  through his home town of Herne Bay, mine was the changing of the guard at Windsor Castle where I stood, hands on hips, basking in my triumph and the clear fabulousness of my hometown. When we were little we used to be ferried up to Windsor Castle from school at least once a year to wave as the Queen drove by and every royal wedding at the castle was a real occasion. Little did I know that I would be driving up the same road to the church next door to the castle in my own wedding car just a few years later to marry the man from the land of papier-mâché giants!

 

I find ceremonies to be such powerful occasions that I inevitably sniff back a couple of tears at any wedding I attend, even if I’m working at the church and I don’t even know the bride and groom other than a couple of meetings and emails back and forth. The wedding of Kate and Will this Spring showed that I’m not alone in enjoying a good ceremony. The response was overwhelming and so many people commented on how great it was to focus on something positive for once. What could be more uplifting than watching two people make a mad declaration of love and devotion, promising to be with one another for the rest of their lives?

What gets me at weddings is the sense of a new start and tomorrow I’ll be taking part in a very exciting new start for our community. Anyone involved in the church will know that where three words can be used in the place of one the church will always, always go for three. So tomorrow we will be instituting, inducting and installing our new Vicar. Oh yes. I was delighted to be asked to take part in the ceremony and despite falling up the aisle in the rehearsal they have still let me continue in my important role as ‘book hander-over-er’ (this is a technical term, of course). I’m looking forward to it very much indeed. I will be handing the new Vicar the liturgy (basically the words of the services we use) of the Church of England and saying a few brief sentences on behalf of the community. We will then be toasting a new beginning together and much joy and hilarity will ensue. 

It is a joy and an honour to be part of such a hotchpotch community and I’ll be blogging more about that this weekend over on the Learning from Sophie Community Blog Party. I’ll post a link when it’s up and hopefully see you there!

Amendment....If you'd like to read my community blog post on Parish Life then head on over to my post at Learning from Sophie here!