The United Benefice of Fen Drayton with Conington and Lolworth and Swavesey The Fisherman - The Benefice Magazine Issue 16.2 - Summer 2010 There are some verses from the Song of Solomon which have become very popular at weddings since they first appeared in the list of recommended Bible readings about ten years ago:   My beloved speaks and says to me:  ‘Arise, my love, my fair one,   and come away;   for now the winter is past,...’  ‘Set me as a seal upon your heart,   as a seal upon your arm;   for love is strong as death,   passion fierce as the grave.   Its flashes are flashes of fire,   a raging flame.   Many waters cannot quench love,   neither can floods drown it....’ Summer Fruits The White Rose Trio with Jonathan Sage playing at the Swavesey Festival Concert on 20th June 2010 While these verses may not at first sight seem to say very much about marriage in the context of Christian faith, they do speak very clearly of human love and this, no doubt, explains their popularity. ‘Love is all you need,’ sang the Beatles - and they were right - as long as we remember that God is the mother lode and source of all love and loving. Indeed, one way of reading of the Song of Solomon sees this whole book as a poem exploring the love in which Christ holds his Church and with which the Church loves her Lord. And this love of Christ is ‘strong as death’ - stronger, in fact.  Nothing can quench its ardour, nothing can compromise its faithfulness and its loyalty.  It is the love we celebrate in worship, in marriage and in life.  It is the love in which creation speaks with the Creator, whose fruits we enjoy in the summer of life and which fortify us against the rigours of winter. Love bridges the divide between the sacred and the secular for it is our prime duty towards both God and neighbour.  It is the fundamental law of the Kingdom of God’s just and gentle rule - our goal on earth and the reward of heaven. The Vicar