I've always had a certain affection for St Hugh. Together with St Chad he is patron of my former College chapel. As he's a kind of honorary "old boy", as it were, I did go to the trouble of visiting St Hugh last time I was in Lincoln - although, to be fair, he was a bit quiet. However unlike Chad, the patron saint of people who look over walls and of small circles of paper, St Hugh is the patron saint of sick people and swans.
Given these two specialisms, we figured we'd two choices for this morning's special service. We could either have a healing service, or a blessing of swans. Now last time we had a healing service I became accutely aware of the presence of lots of ill people around the place. Which un-nerved me, frankly. And thanks to our theology of healing - which states that God often responds quite quickly to prayers for common colds and for people who are "feeling a bit down", but allows long-term, debilitating illlnesses and amputations to linger for the good of the sufferers' souls - we never really pray for healing per se anyway. More for a general feeling of acceptance, and a prayer that they'll make it to the doctor safely.
So it looks like a swan blessing. We're getting the Community charabanc out and heading for the Bedford embaankment, with maybe a hint of an unusual cider at the Wellington Arms.
Now all we've got to do is work out how you bless a swan. I reckon there's no point throwing water over them. They won't know the difference. Just water off a duck's back really. Maybe we should just wish them well from the side lines, and chuck them some bread.
You'd better not try anointing them with oil either. They'd probably break your arm. You could bless some water, then soak the bread in it before you chuck it to them. Water birds are harmed by dry bread. It swells up inside.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest blessing them not just with any old bread, but with leftover consecrated communion bread, or wafers if that is your bent. If anyone object that this is casting pearls before swine, tell them that "swine" is not the plural of "swan"!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can bless the bread first before chucking it over. Mind the wings, though. It's said they can break a man's arm.
ReplyDeleteEDIT: And then she scrolled up and saw Peter's comment. Oh well.
Interesting fact: Did you know Hugh protected the local Jewish population in Lincoln? This makes me so happy, (because medieval Europe and Jewry did not exactly go hand in hand, skipping down the yellow brick road) I might just post it everywhere I go like anglican spam.