LEADING peer Lord Hurd spoke of childhood memories and the changing face of the English language when he appeared as guest speaker at Blackburn Cathedral.

Lord Hurd - who as Douglas Hurd was Mrs Thatcher's Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary and is now working on the reorganisation of the House of Lords - produced his great-aunt's prayer book at the Blackburn Prayer Book Society's May Festival.

He said: "There is nothing special about this particular prayer book - there are thousands sitting on the upper shelves of bookcases in sitting rooms all over England - but it brings back many memories for me.

"It carries strong recollections of a tiny village church where my aunt and my family would worship."

Lord Hurd told members of the society that prayer books were important because they helped people use different and special language for worship, as opposed to the words they used every day.

He said: "I would argue we need words and language that is different from that we use in everyday life when we are chatting to the neighbours over the garden fence.

"We don't behave in a cathedral like this in the same way we behave in the street or the pub, and for good reason.

"We are trying to converse with our creator and we need help to do it in different words from those we use in the corner shop."

Lord Hurd, who visited Whalley Abbey two years ago, was presented with a book and a compact disc by members of the society before they held their annual general meeting in the cathedral crypt.

Earlier in the day they had listened to a sermon by the Ven Robert Lads, Archdeacon of Lancaster.

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