The Parish of the Ascension has taken on a new MAP line in Wholly (Holy) Happy Hens. We arrived home yesterday to discover a neatly packaged egg on the doorstep with a scroll announcing to their Beloved in Christ the Bishop of Huntingdon that eggs for himself and his Brother of Ely had been carried in procession on foot to them from Cambridge with all due solemnity, the eggs having been laid by hens rescued by Philipa the Team Rector and blessed by Bishop Simon Barrington-Ward (photo above, hat-tip the Ascension website and Janet).
So I really do have to reply in style:
David, by Divine Permission, Bishop of Huntingdon to Philipa Ann King, Clerk in Holy Orders, Team Rector of the Parish of the Ascension in Cambridge, Greeting.
Whereas you have blessed us with the gift of a most wholesome and holy egg, the produce of the righteous and right comely hens who reside in the Rectory Garden
And whereas the said gift has been enjoyed most heartily by the episcopal household, an enjoyment in which we wish many others to share
We do hereby appoint you Mistress of the most Honourable Order of the Holy And Happy Hens of Cambridge, for the furtherance of the well-being and well-laying of the said hens and the health and happiness of all our sisters and brothers in the aforesaid place
Given under our hand and seal at our residence in Ely, this nineteenth day of July in the year of our Lord two thousand and nine.
+ David Huntingdon
Filed under: Humour, mission, Cambridge, Churches, Hens, Holy
