On Wednesday this week is the day generally known as Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of forty days of Lent, connecting us with the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert being prepared for his life’s work, and these forty days in the desert themselves mirror the forty years that the people of Israel spent wandering in the Sinai desert before being allowed to possess the land of Israel. Christians mostly observe Lent by giving up things they might normally enjoy, rich foods, drinking or smoking spring to mind. In addition to giving up things we can also take up things that might deepen or refresh our faith. Here at St Stephens’s we are offering:
- A weekly Bible study, studying the seven last words of Jesus from the cross – every Tuesday starting at 7pm on Tuesday 3rd
- A pilgrimage to Walsingham in Norfolk over the weekend of 7/8 March (organised by our Reader Trot Lavelle and also our Curate Tomos Reed)
- There will also be a session of the Council for Christians and Jews here at St Stephen’s on Wednesday 18th March at 7.45 on the subject: “Teaching by re-enacting: Dulwich Passion Play 2020, and Celebration of the Passover meal in SE London”
All in all, Lent is a holy season, not something to be endured, a season of discovery and growth. Ultimately it is a season to make us more sensitive and receptive to the glory and blessing that the great Easter has in store for us.
Bernhard Schunemann
