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Having spent
a vast fortune in Tesco ( well only £5) buying 10 beautiful
red roses for my wife, you could say that romance is not
dead. I was not alone. Lots of people seem to be walking
around Fakenham with bunches of flowers, as the florists
rubbed their hands, and New Covent Garden thanked God for St
Valentine.
Although we
remember the sad death of St Valentine, in reality it was in
the 4th Century that the tradition grew up that
it was on St Valentine’s Day that every male bird, ‘Findeth
himself a mate’. So if the birds can do it, why not us.
For the
Church it is the end of Marriage Week and we are still
delighted that 50% of all weddings take place in an Anglican
Church and this year the national church will see about
50,000 weddings. In Fakenham we spend hour with couples,
have a marriage preparation team, and work hard to make sure
that the wedding day is very special.
The
number of weddings in Fakenham is increasing and it my hope
that this trend will continue.
Having just
returned from a two day wedding course I am aware that many
people find coming into church or attending a church service
a very daunting exercise. The baptism or wedding service can
be a nightmare for many. So our task in the coming years
will be to make sure that every effort is made to make these
occasions very special.
Couples are
getting married at a later stage. Many will already have
children, some will come from a former relationship. However
I would like to emphasise that we accept couples where they
are as God accepts us as we are. God created us all as
individuals, with special gifts and with our identity and we
hope to make that wedding day individually created for you
so that you can look back on a very special day and to the
future with hope.
On St
Valentines’ Day we had a special service at church with cake
and wine and invited people to think about marriage as one
of my recently married couples renewed their vows. Although
I may buy the cheapest flowers I can get away with (although
the 10 red roses from Tesco actually were excellent value
!) I still value my marriage after 37 years and I hope that
you do as well. Having recently met one couple at a
Residential Home who have been married for 60 years it was
obvious that romance was not dead yet !
Happy St
Valentine's Day
Adrian Bell
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