London rarely fails to amaze. Having a church member from Montserrat is a statistically unlikely event - but one day a few years back we had a visitor (unconnected) from Montserrat too! To have two unrelated congregants from Montserrat is vanishingly improbable in any church in the world that doesn't have a direct Montserrat connection, because the island had a small population even before half of it was made uninhabitable by its volcano erupting some decades ago. Today its population is less than 5000.
More amazing still is its flag:
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| Public Domain |
There on the flag is the familiar sign of the territory's connection to the UK - the Union flag in the corner of the blue ensign. But who is she? Why is she white-skinned, and wearing green? And holding a harp while embracing the cross?
She is white because she is Irish. She is Erin. That's why she holds a celtic harp.
This unlikely symbol for a Caribbean island is unlikely only because most of us have no idea that Montserrat was once populated largely by Irish immigrants.
Most special of all, I need no imaginative line of thought to squeeze Christian meaning from this flag. The reason that Erin embraces the cross is officially explained as symbolising the islanders' love of Christ.
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