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enlightening the reader about this time-honoured sport once practised in the BISHOP’S LETTER
area. I am sure there will be more to discover in this beautiful part of Dorset.

Glossary of technical hawking terms in the text (italics) to help with the It won’t have escaped many of us that this year, Ash
article: Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day. This may feel like
an uncomfortable union.
Falconer: one who trains and flies long-winged hawks (falcons). The austringer or
flier of short-winged hawks may also be included in this generic term. Whilst we know that Valentine’s Day is Saint Valentine’s
Day, the commercial reality of this occasion means
Mews or Mew: place where hawks are kept, originally a place where a hawk was that it has become a day of heart-shaped balloons
kept for moulting. and chocolates, red roses and looking your best for
Passage hawk: a hawk caught wild in its immature plumage. that romantic meal for two. This doesn’t sit easily with
the sombre, penitential tone of Ash Wednesday when
Tiercel, or tercel: the male of Peregrine or Gyr, often applied to the male flowers are removed from our churches, and we are
Goshawk, and the other large long-winged hawks. brought face to face with our imperfections; our daily
ability to turn from God. As a gritty cross of ash is
Weather: hawks on their blocks or perches in the open air are weathering. marked on our forehead we are told.
A special thanks to Marie-Anne Griffin, John Pitfield and David Gray for their kind Remember that you are dust, and to dust you
help.
shall return.
Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.
This stark, deeply humbling, yet powerful
moment sets the tone for the season of Lent
when we are called to step into the
wilderness with Christ and therefore into a
time of prayer, self-reflection, repentance
and self-denial. Yet, nothing about Ash
Wednesday or Lent is about dwelling in self-
loathing or indeed an unforgiveness of
ourselves for the times when we have turned
from God. On the contrary, it is a time when
we are re-directed and re-centred on our
absolute need for God – for God’s
forgiveness, for God’s grace, for God’s saving
love made know to us through Jesus.
Maybe then Valentine’s Day and Ash
Wednesday are not poles apart after all. For it is in the wilderness of Lent, and
indeed in the events of Holy Week that follow, that we see face to face the
depths of God’s love. A love that isn’t expressed in fine dining or red roses, but
the bread and wine of the Last Supper, the blood of Christ shed on the cross and
the joy of the open tomb on Easter morning.

Bishop Stephen

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