Dust and Glory: Daily Bible readings from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day

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During Lent and throughout the year, Growing Good helps churches reach out through loving service and social action, grow spiritually through discipleship and invite everyone to be part of God’s work transforming work. This Lent calls us to contemplate the fundamental human need for connection. As our common humanity is degraded by powerful interests working to subordinate human beings into atomised consumers and identity groups, we, like the disciples in ancient Galilee resisting the imperialist Roman occupation, are called to offer resistance today, by rooting our identity in Christ and by coming together with others in the local. Read more… United Reformed Church At the heart of the Christian message is a collection of abstract nouns: love; sin; forgiveness; grace. It is quite difficult to explain what the gospel message is without using some or all of those words. But the problem with abstract nouns is that when we use them, we assume that the person we are talking to understands them, and not only that, we assume that they have the same understanding of the word that we do…" Growing Good is a free course for churches, offering six sessions to help your congregation grow in faith and make a difference in your community. Accompanying the book, Bishops Mark, Julie, and Sam will be recording a series of podcasts on the material, and there is a suite of recorded reflections on biblical passages.

Designed as a ‘prequel’ to the LICC Fruitfulness on the Frontline course, Loved and Liked aims to enable people to explore who they are as diverse individuals inhabiting different stories and carrying different joys and hurts. It invites participants todareto discover yet more of the God who knows us by name, loves us and calls us to go on becoming who we have been created to be. The weekly themes of the Archbishop’s Lent Book are also explored in daily reflections from the Church of England. Dust and Glory: A Lent Journey of faith, failure and forgiveness offers a daily Bible reading, a short reflection and a practical challenge, as well as a prayer linked to the week’s theme. Co-written by Bishop Emma Ineson and Abbie Martin, the booklet is designed to be used either in parallel with the Lent Book or independently. This four-week course by Ruth Valerio suitable for Lent, although not written specifically for it. This Bible study is written for small group study or personal use. Each of the four sessions is a combination of the biblical and the practical and finishes with a practical response. In each session I take one of the four main issues our world faces (climate change, deforestation, species loss and water) and four main areas in which we can make a difference: food, travel, energy and waste. Ruth Valerio was the author of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s 2020 Lent Book on similar themes. Based on threeyears of research and conversations, led by a team including Church Action on Poverty, and academics from the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University, the Lincoln Theological Institute at Manchester University, and the University of Winchester.

There will be free online support for groups studying the book – including in-depth video interviews with the Archbishop of Canterbury and others exploring the themes of each of the chapters. The Room Where It Happens is an exciting new Lent course for 2022, written by Bishop Rose and based on the award-winning musical Hamilton. It is suitable for people to follow either as a group meeting in person or remotely or as individuals. The five sessions invite us to explore what the Bible and the experience of Christian faith teach us about some key issues that Alexander Hamilton faced – and that we face today. Hamilton’s responses to injustice, adversity and temptation, his search for identity, and his realisation that he (and all of us) can make a difference in the world have much to teach us. Each session contains an opening prayer, an introduction, film excerpts to watch/listen to and discuss, Bible passages to read and explore, ‘share and discuss’ and ‘think and discuss’ sections, reflections, suggested action, and a closing prayer. This inspiring York Course on John’s Gospel, the most mysterious of all the gospel accounts of the life of Christ, invites us to meet Jesus afresh . . . an ideal study for Lent or any time of the year An accompanying children’s version is also available to help children and their families explore how we can live well together, offering a simple daily activity designed to explore the weekly themes. Discovering our unique identity cannot be separated from exploring who we are as people created to live in relationship with God, neighbour and creation in many different contexts, past and present, and it is hoped that the group interaction of the course will engage both the head and heart amid questions, challenges and encouragement. It is not a course seeking right answers but rather an invitation to take risks as we respond to Jesus Christ’s offer of life in all its fullness wherever we find ourselves and in whatever circumstances.

Dust and Glory: A Lent journey of faith, failure and forgivenessis the Church of England’s Lent theme for 2023. This year’s resources are informed and inspired by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s 2023 Lent Book, Failure: What Jesus said about sin, mistakes and messing stuff upby Bishop Emma Ineson, who has also co-written the daily reflections booklet for adults The book, titled Clinging to the Crossisthe first of three books in a series called Between the Stones and the Firelight.

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Dust and Glory: A Lent Journey of faith, failure and forgivenessoffers a daily Bible reading, a short reflection and a practical challenge, as well as a prayer linked to the week’s theme. Co-written by Bishop Emma Ineson and Abbie Martin, the booklet is designed to be used either in parallel with the Lent Book or independently. Inthis year’s BRF Lent book, Sally Welch explores two questions: What is the Easter story really about, and how do we share it? The Archbishops say "This Lent we are all invited to explore how we can live well with the mess of everyday life. Resources for Lent 2023 from the Church of England #DustAndGlory: A Lent journey of faith, failure and forgiveness Lent is traditionally a time of repentance, fasting and prayer as we prepare to celebrate our salvation at Easter. Through daily readings and reflections from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day, Amy Scott Robinson explores different biblical images of repentance, sin, forgiveness and grace, bringing them together in Holy Week as a lens through which to view Christ’s work of reconciliation on the cross.

An accompanying children’s version will also be available to help children and their families explore how we can live well together, offering a simple daily activity designed to explore the weekly themes. Sign up today to access all the resources including session guides, case study films, tips for group leaders and more. We will send you regular updates about Growing Good and the Church Urban Fund, including how you can get involved and the difference your support is making. https://growing-good.org.uk/lent-2023 Christ’s Costly Gift of Reconciliation’– Through Scripture reflection, questions for reflection and discussion, suggestions for action and prayer, we seek to continue the journey initiated at the World Council of Churches 11th Assemblyin Karlsruhe, Germany. We look ahead to another major gathering of the global Church that will take place in Europe this year, the General Assembly of the Conference of European Churches, and we consider on the way some of the challenges facing the Church in the work of reconciliation, inspired by work CTBI is currently leading or supporting. Sign up for the study. Christian Enquiry Agency (christianity.org.uk) is an evangelism initiative from Chris Duffett, in partnership with Simon Goddard at RiverTree Ltd, that seeks to transform the ‘private’ in-church Easter party into a public celebration of the resurrection. Explore 123GO!There are six studies in this USPG study guide – from Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Caribbean, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, and the Diocese of Europe. Our theme for this guide is informed by the Parable of the Good Samaritan, but you are invited to draw on other readings too, offering shared experiences in the Church, in all its diversity, of what it is to be a good neighbour today. Increasingly in recent years, Lent has been rediscovered as a sacred time of reflection and renewal in its own right and a time of preparation for the seasonal finale that is Easter Day. Conversations with Christians are one of the most important influences in bringing people to faith. In this course, there are six encouraging, video-based sessions with short films, inspirational, short testimonies, real-life examples from people who are talking Jesus, and a short, easy-to-follow course book.

There is a path through the materials that focusses on the scripture for the day, and also one that takes you more deeply into the traditional accounts of St Winefride, whose story has many touchpoints with our modern world – sexual harassment and coercion, misuse of power, the place of faith and the right to follow Jesus, and the contemporary need for healing and hope. Dust and Glory encourages us to take a fresh look at the frustrations and failings that every day brings and, rather than pretending we can always avoid them, seek to learn from them and grow closer to God through them." As well as offering her reflections on the various film excerpts, the Bible passages and the themes they explore, Bishop Rose also draws on her own experiences from a childhood growing up in Jamaica without a mother from the age of 2, and from her years of ministry. ‘It is my hope’, writes Bishop Rose, ‘that we will find ourselves at the end of the course more literate and fluent when it comes to expressing our faith, and comfortable and willing, not only to recognise, but to speak about the difference faith is making in our daily living.’

Group Courses for Lent 2023

St Michael’s, Stoke Gifford is a lively, growing Anglican church on the northern edge of Bristol. We are a welcoming crowd of everyday people, living to make a difference by being a Christian heart at the centre of our communities. Everyone is welcome at St Michael’s. As in recent years, the weekly themes of the Archbishop’s Lent Book are also explored in daily reflections from the Church of England.