Religion: Stir Up Sunday

All over the world last Sunday, Anglican and Episcopal priests read the collect for the Sunday next before Advent: “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people. . . .” But few & far between were the clergy who followed the old English custom of Stir Up Sunday, taking their sermon texts from the collect’s opening sentence. Fewer still were the irreverent moppets who piped the day’s old ditty:

Stir up, we beseech thee,

The pudding in the pot,

And when we get home,

We’ll eat it all hot.