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Hi, I'm Richard England, the Anglican vicar of Crofton Parish
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This week the church celebrates Candlemas, when Jesus, still a baby, was presented in the temple
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at Jerusalem. In that story, Mary and Joseph with Jesus met an older, prayerful man named Simeon
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As Simeon held Jesus, he prayed these words, Lord as you have promised now dismiss your servant in peace. It's the prayer of a person
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who accepts they are coming to the end of their life yet knows they can entrust what has been
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and what will be into the care of God. Simeon's prayer has been used for 2,000 years at the end
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of a day and at the end of a life. I use it when I pray with people who are reaching the end of
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their journey. We prefer to think about beginnings more than endings. We don't really like thinking
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about our own end. But Simeon's prayer reminds us that even at our own ending
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we can entrust all we are into the care of a loving God
