Pray for Ukraine
During Lent this year, we are being encouraged by our Archbishops to pray for peace in Ukraine, making April 3 a day of prayer. Click here for resources to help you to do so.
Bishop’s Lent Appeal
Bishop Jonathan has chosen the charity that will benefit from his first Lent Appeal as bishop. Click on the link below for full details.
National C of E Lent resources
#LiveLent is the campaign launched by the national Church of England to lead people in daily devotion and prayer during Lent. This year, we are remembering the cry of the Prophet Isaiah: ‘Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice?’
This Lent we are called to reflect on the injustices of the world and ask what God is calling us to do about them. Over forty days, we step into God’s work in the here and now – and in doing so we move from brokenness towards wholeness.
Resources
Living Stones, Living Hope
USPG have released a 5-week study for Lent called Living Stones, Living Hope, exploring contextual theology from five different cultures. There’s a series of webinars and a downloadable PDF course guide, available here. They have also produced a number of liturgical resources for use in a variety of services, including all-age.
Live Lent: Embracing Justice
Paperback, £1.99, Church House Publishing
Live Lent: Embracing Justice is the Church of England’s theme for Lent 2022. It invites us to examine our own lives truthfully, to see the world more deeply and to pray – for the church and the world far and near – that ‘justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (Amos 4.24).
For each day of Lent, this booklet for adults offers a daily Bible reading, a short reflection and a prayer, as well as a practical challenge. Each week follows a different thread through the many stories of justice in the Bible to explore how God works with humanity to bring justice, wholeness and salvation to all.
Live Lent: Embracing Justice (for kids)
Paperback, £1.50, Church House Publishing
This Lent booklet for children provides a fun daily action to help children and their families explore how we can live well together, as well as a weekly reading and prayer.
Each week follows a different thread through the many stories of justice in the Bible to explore how God brings justice, wholeness and salvation to all.
You can order single copies here, packs of 10 here, or packs of 50 here.
Resources from previous years
Thy Will Be Done
Stephen Cherry
Thy Will be Done, by Stephen Cherry (of King’s College Cambridge, whose voice we hear every year at the annual Carol Service) is the latest of many books on the Lord’s Prayer that, more than any other prayer or thing, holds us together as individuals in the church. This is a good new opportunity to deepen our understanding of very familiar words – 57 of them in the Greek – and the book will help to simplify our prayer and devotion.
A Cross In The Heart Of God
Sam Wells
A Cross in the Heart of God: Reflections on the death of Jesus is by the well-known broadcaster and vicar, Sam Wells. This is a typically thoughtful book, with a study guide too, from a priest who is able to be challenging and provoking as well as consoling and reassuring. Head on he doesn’t avoid the different understandings of Christ’s crucifixion and enables us to discover them as, indeed, God’s wondrous love.