All the great free climbers have to begin somewhere…!
Chalking up the entrance on Epiphany Sunday has become a Hampstead Parish Church tradition. Epiphany Sunday commemorates the visit of the ‘Three Wise Men’ to the baby Jesus and this year Graham went up the ladder for the ceremony of ‘The Blessing of the Chalk’. Apparently the ceremony goes back to the Middle Ages. God is asked to bless our church and the door is chalked with the legendary names or initials of the three Magi, and the numerals of the New Year, connected with a series of crosses. The initials C, M, and B commemorate the Magi, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, but also stand for the Latin prayer-request Christus Mansionem Benedicat: “May Christ bless this house.” So above the entrance to the church you will see the following marked in chalk – 20+C+M+B+23.
This Epiphany ceremony is a simple but meaningful act of witness which symbolises Christian willingness to offer hospitality and shelter to the Magi on their journey to Bethlehem, and also, by extension in today’s world, to welcome all and sundry who love or are seeking the Lord’s Christ. Chalk is used in this tradition because it is an ordinary substance of the earth, “dust” put to holy use.
