Church letter

February 2024

Click for the church letter from January 2024

A time for Valentines, Ash, and Shriving

Mention 14 February and most people will think of Valentine’s Day This year, though, it is also Ash Wednesday, which is a moveable feast because it is linked to the date of Easter Sunday, which also moves. And, of course, the day before Ash Wednesday is Shrove Tuesday, with the tradition of all those lovely pancakes (or Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday - marked in some other countries). There is a real mishmash of ancient, secular and religious things occurring on 14 February this year.

St Valentine (there was more than one) was a priest of Rome who was imprisoned for giving aid to persecuted Christians. He became a convert himself and is reported to have restored the sight of his jailer’s blind daughter, but he was clubbed to death circa 270AD! Another Valentine was the Bishop of Terni in Italy, who was martyred (probably beheaded) for his Christian faith a few years later. He is also, apparently, the patron saint of asthma, beekeepers, and epilepsy! Then there is the ancient custom of choosing ‘Valentines’, which has only accidental relation to these saints. Valentines may have been related to the Lupercal cave in Rome, the spot where Romulus and Remus were suckled by the wolf; or it may come from its association with the mating season of birds at this time of year. All very romantic. Nowadays it is marked by the giving and receiving of cards, with cupids and hearts, to a loved one.

Shrove Tuesday is associated with ‘shriving’ - presenting oneself to the priest for confession, penance and absolution of one’s sins before the beginning of Lent. It’s also associated with using up the fat before the lean, penitential period of Lent, with its tradition of abstinence, of ‘giving something up’. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday but the calculation of the 40-day period has varied considerably through Christian history. Currently in the West it is 40 days before Easter, not counting Sundays. Ashes are an ancient sign of penitence and from the Middle Ages it became the custom to begin Lent by being marked in ash with the sign of the cross.

So, we will continue with the tradition and the ancient rite in Benenden. I for one will be enjoying home-made pancakes on Shrove Tuesday using my Gran’s old cast-iron frying pan. We will then meet in St George’s Church (at 7.30pm) for the rite of Ash Wednesday, and the imposition of a cross on the forehead with the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ,” and we will share communion together. And so begins another period of Lent.

Oh, and I’d better remember Valentine’s Day too, otherwise I’ll be in trouble!

Revd David Commander, Rector and Area Dean