How is the Way ?
Break the Bias
International Women’s Day
Spring always brings an opportunity to renew our thoughts and actions as we grow in aspirations and new ways of thinking about our approach to life. So this photo became, for me, a symbol of what is at the heart of what the International Women’s Day is seeking to achieve.
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #BreakTheBias – a push towards a gender equal world that is free of bias, discrimination and stereotypes against women.
The quest to achieve this involves inspiring inclusion which those organizing today explain in this way.
To inspire inclusion means to celebrate diversity and empowerment on International Women’s Day 2024 and beyond.
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Each year, this day serves as a powerful reminder of the progress made towards gender equality and highlights the work that still needs to be done.
In 2024, the campaign theme Inspire Inclusion emphasizes the importance of diversity and empowerment in all aspects of society.
This year’s campaign theme underscores the crucial role of inclusion in achieving gender equality. It calls for action to break down barriers, challenge stereotypes, and create environments where all women are valued and respected. Inspire Inclusion encourages everyone to recognize the unique perspectives and contributions of women from all walks of life, including those from marginalized communities.
The Church of England’s Mothers’ Union, founded in the 19th Century has consistently worked for these aims and does so now on a global scale. There are branches in many countries of the world, active in encouraging the empowerment of women often in difficult and hostile circumstances.
They have suggested that we make this time a moment to pause, contemplate and renew our commitment to advancing gender equality. To this end they offer this prayer below.
Gill Henwood
Start your prayer there…
Begin your prayer there… these words were written some years ago from the Nuns of West Malling in a little book of meditations. They are both simple and profound.
When my friend, Gill Henwood, sent me the photograph from the Lake District which she named, ‘Evening Calm’,
I thought the words from West Malling `fitted the view.
Both the photograph and the words are a reminder that whatever the world appears to be right now, it is not all that it is!
Gill comments,
“I am finding that ‘communing’ with nature gives an eternal perspective in these dark days. The rhythms of light and dark, stars, moon and sun, budding flowers and trees all speak of a deeper creating.
Love embedded in this world of human failure and violence reminds me that there are millions of fellow travellers who are people of good heart and faithful service and deep kindness ~ and of course that includes all creatures, like my lovely dogs!!” (Gill)
PS – not forgetting Mr G’s cat Pagli, the sponsor of this Blog.
[More photos from Gill soon.]
St Chad
St Cædda (St Chad) is commemorated on March 2nd.
When St Oswald sent to Iona for a monk to open up his people to the love of God in Jesus Christ, the community ultimately sent Aidan (the first monk they sent turned out to be rather disappointing!) Aidan established his monastery on Lindisfarne, in Northumberland, known today as Holy Island. It was made holy, consecrated to God, by the mission St Aidan began. He first trained up 12 Anglo-Saxon boys in the faith, in prayer and in the ways of God. Of these, four were brothers. Two we know of because of their missionary work and because the Venerable Bede wrote of them. St Chad, after a time in the North-East of England, took the Gospel to the Midlands, establishing a church in Mercia at what is now Lichfield. His brother Cedd took the Gospel to Essex and then Lastingham in North Yorkshire. When Cedd died, Chad continued his work there.
Today Chad’s mission and ministry lives on in Lichfield Cathedral and Diocese, in the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham, in parishes and schools dedicated to him and in the College which bears his name in the University of Durham.
I couldn’t find a poem about him, so I wrote this one in honour of his saint’s day today.
Cædda (St Chad)
He found his place of Resurrection
deep in the Mercian woods,
near the church he founded.
Here, angels sang prayers of preparation,
bringing joyful messages from on high.
He heard his Lord, quietly whispering to him.
“Cædda, it is time.
You must come home now.”
It had been a great adventure,
beginning on that far off day when,
with Cedd and Cynbil and Caelin,
he crossed the Northumbrian water
following the calling Cross,
the hymns of birds and seals,
and the lapping mantra of waves,
to a place of welcome and warmth
and the great man who waited for them.
There were twelve in the end,
a band of brothers learning to get on together.
Celtic words taught to Anglo-Saxon minds,
merging with the language of Love.
Excitement and joy,
as slowly, but wonderfully,
they heard the words of God
swirling across the headland:
eddying Gospel syllables
bringing holiness to Cædda’s soul.
It was there, on that far shore,
that he found the dawn of his Resurrection.
[Mr G.]
St Chad’s Day March 2nd 2024
Mr G's Ponderings 