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Good morning.

It is exactly a calendar month today since Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana Cambridge made her very sprightly way into the world, bringing joy to her parents and family and a welcome distraction from other impending events that week for the rest of us.  Having been born in the rather dreary month of November myself, I am always a bit envious of those with spring birthdays in particular.  Spring is a time of promise and hope and almost always the birth of a baby evokes those same feelings.  It is a cause for celebration and very often an opportunity for families to get together and remind themselves of the bonds that unite them.  The family is for most of us the first place in which we learnt about belonging and about love.  It is often also the place where we first learnt about consideration for others, about forgiveness and about the fact that we were not the centre of the known universe – useful lessons for life, all three.  We live in an age where our concept of family – and our experience of it – is changing, perhaps more than at any time in our history.  Families and family relationships and boundaries are more fluid and whilst this can bring richness and joy it can – and does – also often bring sadness and loss, especially for children.  Perhaps all of this makes it a good time to reflect with gratitude on our own family and how it has shaped us, but also to remember and be mindful of those whose experience of family has been otherwise.

God, our loving Father and Mother, we thank you for our families who have loved us and nurtured us and we ask you to walk especially closely alongside those without a loving human family.  Amen.