From here:
Laid to rest in her best clothes and lying on an ornamental bed, she was probably of noble blood.
Quite how the 16-year-old Anglo Saxon girl died and who she was remain a mystery.
But she was buried wearing a gold cross – suggesting she was one of Britain’s earliest Christians.
[…..]
It was probably sewn into her clothing around the neck and may have been worn in her daily life.
It’s taken 1,400 years for the British government to decide that the cross is not something that it will tolerate being worn “in daily life” and for an Archbishop of Canterbury to declare that a cross is something “religious people make and hang on to as a substitute for true faith”
Such is the march of progress.
For me personally the wearing of a Holy Cross is similar to making the sign of the cross on oneself (i.e. when the Priest pronounces the absolution). It is an outward expression of a internal Faith. By no means at all is the wearing of a Holy Cross nor crossing oneself a “substitute for true Faith”, for these things are in fact inspired by holding fast to the one true Faith.
When a person understands the duality of our existance, the spiritual and the physical, one can more easily accept that wearing a Holy Cross or crossing oneself is the physical representation of something spiritural. As Jesus Christ calls us to be witnesses in this world I consider it completely appropriate for Christians to make these publically visible displays of Faith.
I for one have made it known to my Wife that when I die I want to have the full Church funeral service (Book of Common Prayer of course), and that I am to be burried wearing her wedding ring, wearing my cross, and holding my King James Version Holy Bible and also holding my Book of Common Prayer.