In a centuries-old English church
where Jane Austen worshipped,
my daughter performs her role
on the steps before the stone altar
in her school’s nativity play
beneath stained-glass windows,
a star shining bright above
the road to Bethlehem,
a traveller from a foreign land
wearing the uniform of her peers,
accepted into the tribe,
lack of belief no impediment.
Artwork by Jackie Benney. Published with permission of the artist.
