In the United Kingdom, for many years the Fourth Sunday in Lent has been observed as Mothering Sunday. The tradition arose from a sentence in St Paul's Letter to the Galatians, which for many centuries was read in the Epistle of this Sunday: in it St Paul writes of "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all". So, on this day we give thanks to God who gives us New Birth, and for the Church which, like a mother, nurtures us in the life of the Spirit. We also give thanks for our own human mothers, and for all the qualities of mothering, given and received in our congregations.

COLLECT FOR MOTHERING SUNDAY

God of compassion,

whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,

shared the life of a home in Nazareth,

and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:

Strengthen us in our daily living

that in joy and in sorrow

we may know the power of your presence

to bind together and to heal;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen