Laetare Sunday Service

A mid Lent service for reflection with music and readings. Known as Rose or Refreshment Sunday, Laetare Sunday is halfway through Lent, 21 days before Easter and based on the cycle of the moon.

It provides us with an opportunity to explore and reflect on what significance this pagan, medieval and current celebration, now commonly called Mother’s Day, has for us today

Laetare means ‘rejoice’ and was often marked by the baking of Simnel cakes, giving of flowers and, in places like Bristol, mothering buns – plain yeast-leavened buns, iced, sprinkled with hundreds and thousands, eaten for breakfast.

Pre-Christian traditions of celebration at this time of year are rooted in the life cycle of fertility and growth as we head for spring after the dormant winter season. It is a day of thanksgiving and hope. As urbanisation grew it became a holiday for many people who were given the day to visit the church where they were baptised. Today people are encouraged to visit either their church where they receive communion or the place they were baptised.