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Your beer is too small

by
20 June 2014

iStock

From Mr Malcolm Hensher
Sir, - Where is the Church of England going? I refer to your report "Blokes' bring-a-bottle beer bonanza" about current Father's Day initiatives at St Mark's, Tattenham Corner, Epsom (News, 13 June). We seem to lurch from one gimmick to another.

Father's Day is hardly part of the liturgical calendar, and never has been. Mothering Sunday, on the other hand, is a long-standing Christian thanksgiving for motherhood, with all its theological implications, from Christ's mother to the broad and biblical concept of Mother Church. Father's Day has evolved as an irrelevant commercial pagan sequel to this Christian tradition.

As for bringing bottles of beer to church to swap them with someone else's and take home so that the dads don't feel disaffected . . . dear me!

MALCOLM HENSHER
37 Grange Park, Steeple Aston
Oxon OX25 4SR

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