Show Up: thoughts from a broom cupboard
A few weeks ago, I had the enormous privilege of being at a prayer gathering in St Mary Undercroft, which is the small chapel in the Palace of Westminster.
Afterwards a friend invited me to go and sit in a broom cupboard next to the chapel – Yes really! This turned out to be quite a privilege.
In 1911 Emily Wilding Davison, a suffragette, hid in the broom cupboard on the night of the 1911 census, so that her address would be recorded as ‘The House of Commons’, thus claiming the same political rights as men
It humbles me that people would go to such lengths to secure the rights we often take for granted. Sadly, Emily is better known for having lost her life from injuries sustained by the King’s horse at the Derby in 1913, when Emily was again doing what she could to draw attention to the cause of Votes for Women.
There is now a brass plaque on the inside of the door of the broom cupboard, commemorating this inspiring woman.
As I sat for a few moments in the broom cupboard and read the plaque to her memory, it reminded me of the privilege and responsibility that we all have now to ‘Show Up’.
