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Lent 2010
Alan, our new Bishop, has encouraged us this year to take part in the special Lent Course that he and his colleagues have written for the Diocese. It seems to be a good chance to share the journey with the rest of the Church here, so.... This is what our bishops have written:
Words of Challenge, Words of Life
Written by the Bishops of St Albans, Hertford and Bedford
‘I'm giving up chocolate this Lent – I need to lose a bit of weight anyway.' Many people think that Lent is about simply giving things up, as though God delights in making our lives more difficult. The true focus of Lent is actually about making more space for God in our lives. We give things up to get rid of the clutter that gets in God's way, so that He can inhabit us more fully. Lent is about hearing afresh God's life-giving words to us. It's about renewing our discipleship of Jesus Christ, which is why we are inviting Christians this Lent to engage in three things.
First, to join a Lent group and reflect with others on the gospel readings which are set for each Sunday.
We have written a course which we hope will both inspire and encourage you in your faith. If your church or chaplaincy is not arranging groups, see if you can find one or two other Christians (perhaps from other denominations) to meet together each week to follow this course. The course is set out below, along with some ideas about how you might use the material. For those who would like a bible commentary to give extra background material, we are recommending Wansbrough's Luke: The People's Bible Commentary published by BRF (£7.99).
The course website is at: www.stalbans.anglican.org/Mission/Lent-Course-2010
Second, you may like to participate in Challenge, which complements the Lent Course. We are asking as many people as possible to join us during Lent in daring to make a difference by living the words of Jesus. The idea is to learn some of the words of Jesus Christ by heart each day and then pray that God will give us the chance to put them into action.
Read it, learn it, pray it, do it!
The short daily passages, all taken from the Gospel of Luke, will be downloadable from the internet and can be distributed to members of the youth group or congregation (or in the case of schools, to the pupils). Alternatively you can opt to receive them by text message, email, Twitter or RSS. You will be able to register on the Challenge website at www.challenge2010.org from Advent Sunday. We hope that this challenge will be taken up by people in the churches, as well as seekers and enquirers who would like to explore the words of Jesus Christ. It would be great, for example, to advertise it at Christmas services.
The Challenge website will give further details and ideas about how to make the Challenge a shared exercise within your congregation or among your friends. In particular you will be able to write comments on the website and upload short video clips, via YouTube, so that you can share with others what the passage means to you and how you have lived it out that day.
Third, you are invited to come and join the Easter Monday Pilgrimage on 5th April at the Cathedral in St Albans. This year we are delighted that the community choir from South Oxhey (as featured on the television programme The Choir, led by Gareth Malone) will be with us. You can come by yourself, or with a group. We are inviting all the Lent Groups and those who have done the Challenge to be involved in the Pilgrimage and to make it a way to celebrate and to bring to God all that has been learned, all that has been done and pledges of future action. This will be a wonderful way to express our individual and our corporate commitment to our risen Lord and Saviour, in whose resurrection life we dare to make a difference in our communities and in the world.
Details of the day may be found at www.stalbans.anglican.org/Mission/Easter-Monday-Pilgrimage, and on the
Challenge website at www.challenge2010.org
So, those who wish to be part of this who are lucky enough to have a computer (and even luckier in knowing how to use it) can find the website.
For those who don't (or can't), we'll find a way of giving the texts week by week.
And for those who'd like to meet together to study the Course, we at St. Peter's will meet after the Thursday morning Communion service (at about 11.30am – coffee at 11!) in the Chapter House, and end our study with a shared lunch.
And for those who can't do that, we have been invited to join in with the groups at St. Andrew's – (Monday evenings, Wednesday afternoons and evenings in the Quiet Room in St. Andrew's Church.)
More details about all of this will follow. But do think about joining in with as much of this as you can.
Mike
A word from Mike Fudger our Rector - click here for more information
For a full calendar of the events at St Peters click here
