Fathers' Day

Today is Fathers' day.

It had been something of a sore point for me, long before I actually became a dad myself, that the Church rightly makes a very big thing of Mothering Sunday but all too often completely ignores Father's Day. On the majority of occasions in the past when I went to church on Fathers' Day the fact would literally not get so much as a mention. Once or twice I pointed out to various vicars that the church was seriously missing a trick in this respect: the reponse was to point out that Mothering Sunday was an official part of the church calendar while Fathers' day isn't. which merely demonstrated that the responsibility for the missed opportunity for celebrate the role of dads went right to the top.

Well that wasn't the case today, at least in St James' Church Whitehaven, who pulled out all the stops to make something of the fact that it was Fathers' Day.

Both Mums and Dads have an important role in society, and you don't have to go all the way with Fathers 4 Justice to recognise that a failure, by secular society as well as the church, to pay enough attention and respect to the role of fathers has had a significant social cost, particularly to children who have missed out on the support of a father in their life.

It was nice for once to see that mistake avoided and the role of fathers celebrated.

Comments

Tim said…
I have no religious convictions but understand the huge religious significance of Mothering Sunday. Father's day was invented in America in the 1890s and has become another shameless exercise in selling greeting cards. My grandfather hated it as does my Dad today. I am willing to tolerate it and thank my children for their endeavours every June, but it is no big deal.
3:53 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Tim

You are entirely right about the respective origins of Mothering Sunday and Fathers' day.

I still think there is something to be gained by celerating both.
11:29 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

Image
I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more