Have your cake and eat it?

This Sunday the 26th of March is ‘Mothering Sunday‘, or more popularly known as ‘Mothers Day‘. On this day people around the world send cards and give gifts to their mothers, or people who have acted as mother figures in their lives. It is a great time of honouring our mothers and thanking God for them and their presence in our lives.

Originally however, ‘Mothering Sunday‘ was about people visiting the ‘mother church‘ of their region for a large joint celebration of worshipping God. This was common practice during the sixteenth century, where people would return to their ‘mother church‘, which would be either the main Parish church or Cathedral of the area or region. To do this, one was said to have gone ‘a-mothering‘. In later times, ‘Mothering Sunday‘ was the day upon which domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. Normally opportunities for families of those in domestic service, to spend time together in such a way would be impossible, due to the work demands of their position. So this day was a real blessing to them.

As part of the tradition of celebrating ‘Mothering Sunday‘ people often baked a ‘Simnel Cake‘ to eat on this day midway through Lent as part of the celebration of their time with their families. And for those of us who like myself, have special dietary needs, here is a recipe for a gluten free etc. ‘Simnel Cake‘. This was a treat to be had during the 40 day period of ‘fasting‘ that Lent is traditionally held to be. A Simnel Cake is a light fruit cake with two layers of marzipan, one in the middle and one on top, that is toasted, and eaten during the Easter period. Traditionally it also has 11 or 12 balls of marzipan on the top that represent the 12 disciples minus Judas, or the 12 disciples minus Judas with Jesus.

On this Mothering Sunday we will also be holding our regular Sunday Evening Bible Study – ‘Redfine‘ at 6pm to 8pm. We will also be holding our monthly prayer meeting for all of our supporters to come join us to pray for the work we do in Llandudno and beyond. If you want to come along and support the work that we do, then please join us on Sunday 26th March at 7pm in Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, Ffordd Yr orsedd, Llandudno, LL30 1LA. We hope you can make it.

Even if you can’t; let us celebrate Mothering Sunday this Sunday by thanking God for our mothers and spending time with our families. Let us also join together with our local church community and thank God for his goodness to us; and perhaps have a bit of cake too.

Be blessed!