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From the Vicarage June 2018<br />
What day that was: perfect English weather, faultless pageantry,<br />
English Tudor polyphony and American gospel, a groom in uniform<br />
and a bride with a train that reached practically from Windsor to the<br />
M4. The marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be<br />
remembered for a generation, I guess, not least for being the last<br />
grade A Royal wedding until Prince George walks up the aisle. So<br />
much was memorable on that day, not least the coming together of<br />
a mixed heritage American woman and a prince of the blood royal.<br />
One of my lasting memories will be the Prince of Wales escorting<br />
Doria Ragland, Meghan’s mother, from St George’s Chapel, he in<br />
grey morning suit, she in locks and a nose ring, with no loss of dignity<br />
to either. It’s just modern families, how we live now, and it's fine.<br />
Most memorable for me, perhaps for many, was the sermon. Bishop<br />
Michael Curry rocked the chapel, the nation and the estimated<br />
1.9bn watching on television with a homily the likes of which had not<br />
been heard before at a Royal Wedding. For some it was too long, for<br />
others too much, and it was not a sermon I would, or could preach<br />
myself, because I’m not him. But it was not, as some have said, selfindulgent.<br />
On the contrary it was absolutely rooted in Scripture and in<br />
the tradition, looking forward to the great feast of Pentecost, which<br />
fell on the following day. At Pentecost Jesus sent to his disciples the<br />
Holy Spirit in the form of fire, to broaden their sympathies and enliven<br />
their thinking and open their eyes and their ears and their hearts to<br />
the power of the gospel and the love of God. Amen to that!<br />
Yours in Christ,<br />
Father Richard.
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