Yesterday, along with countless others and thanks to  modern technology, I sat in my front room with one of my favourite people in the whole world (Rhonda Lee Somers-Harris) and watched the wedding of Harry and Meghan.  There were 600 guests in Saint George’s Church to witness the ceremony.

One of the highlights for me was the look of pure joy on the face of this guy, right before Meghan entered Saint George’s Church.

It was a rather nostalgic moment for me, as when I was younger, I used to be a choirboy in an Anglican church, St. Peter’s Church in Brighton.  There were the familiar robes, real candles, and of course the power of the liturgy.

When they recited the Lord’s Prayer, memories flooded back of the times we recited it at assembly in school as well as at every service in St. Peter’s.  There were 600 people there saying together, “Our Father.” Some were rich, some were famous, some were old, some were young, yet in the presence of God our Father, none of these distinctions mattered; they were all the same.  From the Queen to the pageboy, all had the same access to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Now, Harry and Meghan are married and carry the title of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the same county where I was a choirboy  in the parish church of St. Peter’s in Brighton.

I am so grateful for the technology that enabled me to watch this historic event and feel one with so many others who pray to “Our Father”. However, I glanced up from typing this and quickly noticed that this same technology that had just last night enabled me to feel one with so many different people, can so easily trap us into our own little insular world and prevent us from moving on from “Our Father” to seeing the fulfilment of “Your Kingdom Come”.

As Michael Curry shared at the wedding, there is power in Love.  I pray that everyone who reads this and acknowledges God as their Father, will take time every day to step out of our technological bubbles and share the power of love to the people around them and see lives changed and transformed as more and more we seek and see His Kingdom come.

Hallowed be your name;

your kingdom come;

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins

as we forgive those that sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom,

the power, and the glory

for ever and ever.

Amen.