Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth

St Bede’s, Basingstoke - 25th April 2009

Saturday, 25th April saw a huge gathering of couples from all over Portsmouth diocese St Bede’s Church, Basingstoke. Each was celebrating a big wedding anniversary during 2009 and had come to celebrate with Bishop Crispian. Their anniversaries ranged from 25 years right up to 70 years and between the nearly 150 couples they totalled over 6000 years of experience of married life. Some brought guests who had been with them on their wedding day, or were accompanied by grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

Speaking at the special mass, the Bishop thanked them for their faithfulness in a world that often makes it difficult to stay together and talked of the couples as beacons of love in the world. “In the Church, you are not simply married for yourselves; you are married for all of us and for all who live around us. You give us the opportunity to see and experience - made flesh in yourselves – the love that the Lord has for each of us and for all his people, You show us what it means to lay down life for friends. You are witnesses to the Gospel, so that when I want to talk about Christ’s love for us, then I can point to you and say ‘there you are; look at that’.”