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Good morning. I don’t normally take the slightest interest in fashion, male or female but my eye was caught by a double page spread on Wednesday with the headline that pink, described as the ultimate symbol of femininity was trending on the Paris catwalk. This was accompanied by pictures of long dresses flowing and billowing in all shades of pink. I decided to cut it out and keep it for my three year old granddaughter who has been obsessed with pink since the time she could open her mouth. The irony is that my daughter has always been fiercely opposed to any kind of gender stereotyping and was determined to bring up her child free of it. Yet anything pink brings forth a shout of glee and there can be two or three changes into different pink dresses in a single day. I am with my daughter on this but stereotypes are still so persistent. This week a survey of 2000 men suggested a deficiency of so called “Dad skills”, the essential role men are expected to play. Another earlier survey on 36 household duties claimed men were willing to empty the bins, change the light bulbs and do a bit of DIY but women were expected to do all the other 33 chores listed. What a load of unfair nonsense. I suspect my wife has been better at DIY than me whilst I regard myself as a highly accomplished washer up. Even worse is the idea that certain qualities like sensitivity and nurturing belong to woman and others, like toughness to men. In fact some of the toughest rulers in the world in the 20th century were women. Surely the good qualities we look for in others and hope others might find in us integrity, unselfishness, sensitivity, compassion, perseverance are equally desirable in both men and women. As Paul said there is neither male nor female but all are one in Christ. And certainly my own church has been hugely enriched by the changes in women’s ministry that have taken place in recent years In my front hall I have, in reproduction, an icon of an angel. The elegant lines are classical, going back to the Greek art of the 5th century before Christ but now deeply imbued with the spirituality of 12th century Christian Byzantium. There is a tender and beautiful pity in the angels face as he looks at the viewer and through the viewer to the suffering of the world. I say he, because Angels usually have masculine names in the Bible. But the face could be that of a woman. And I am reminded of the words of Jesus that in heaven there is neither marrying, nor giving in marriage but that we shall be like the angels. Gender belongs to this world. Faith, hope and love, says St Paul, last for ever.