Lent

Courses, books and resources for 2024

We have produced an excellent guide which reviews great Lent resources, both for individuals and groups. You can use this guide to inform your choice of Lent materials and also pass it on to others to whom it would be helpful.  Click to expand.
Dear Friends,
Lent can often be seen as a season of discipline and privation, as we journey through the desert wilderness with Jesus. And although the sacrifices we make are important, Lent is also a season of opportunity. A season blest with resources written and designed with the purpose of challenging and encouraging us to dig down into the soil of the desert, and find springs of living water waiting to refresh and strengthen us. My hope is that in amongst this collection of resources, you will find something to guide and enrich your Lenten journey.
With my prayers,
Primrose Northrop (Prayer Adviser)

Watch and Pray - The Church of England

The Church of England’s Lent theme for 2024 is Watch and Pray: Wisdom and hope for Lent and life. Watch and Pray invites us to seek God in both familiar and unfamiliar places this Lent: in darkness and in quiet; in movement and migration; in the healing and transforming work of the Spirit; in the weeping of Holy Week and in the joy of Easter morning.

Tarry Awhile: Wisdom from Black Spirituality for People of Faith

By Selina Stone
‘Tarrying' is a Black Christian spiritual practice in which believers actively wait to experience the manifestation of God's presence. Whether in the vibrancy of music and singing, or in the hushed silence of the congregation, people of all ages anticipate an encounter with God that will transform what they know, feel and experience day to day. Tarry Awhile, (The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent 2024 book), offers wisdom for all people who hope to encounter God in the midst of wearying times. It provides fresh reflections on familiar biblical passages, and draws on personal stories, theology and the spiritual wisdom of ancestors who have gone before us. Available online and in all good bookshops.

True Freedom - The Clewer Initiative

Over the last six months, The Clewer Initiative has worked closely with the World Council of Churches to create an international Lent Resource. True Freedom is a six week course, drawing on themes from the book of Galatians, and designed to encourage individuals and churches to respond to modern slavery in their communities. It is hoped that this ground-breaking collaboration will result in churches and individuals using the resource to learn more about modern slavery and most importantly, to begin to take action against it.

Christ and the Chocolaterie

By Hilary Brand Christ and the Chocolaterie is an original, innovative Lent course for small groups or individuals, inspired by the film Chocolat starring Juliette Binoche. It suggests clips from the film, group discussion questions, exercises and meditations, and relevant Bible passages for a powerful aid to Lenten reflection. Twenty-one years since it was first published, Hilary has updated the course for this new edition.
Available online and in all good bookshops.

The Lent Encounter 2024

Through signing up to this devotion, you will receive a daily email from the Bible Society, containing a simple reflection and prayer, with the option to read or listen. You can use this resource during your daily quiet time, on your morning walk, or during your commute to work. It promises to be a simple yet profound journey, as you join thousands of other Christians around the world, travelling through Lent.

Calling a Wounded Planet Home - Green Christian’s

Inspired by Green Christian’s Deep Waters Course, this new resource for Lent asks “What kind of people might we need to be to face the challenges of climate change?” Here is a space to go deeper together, and a space of contemplation that can resource meaningful action. Covering topics of Love, Truth, Wisdom, Justice and Hope, this course uses music, prayer and Bible texts to inform reflection and discussion.

Following Jesus for a world Restored - Tearfund

Now is the time for people who know God’s story of restoration to hold it up as a banner of hope. Now is the time to remind ourselves of the truer trajectory – all things being made new! – and join God’s kingdom mission of restoration. Journeying with Tearfund in the lead up to Easter you will reflect on your call to join Jesus as people of restoration – working together towards God’s vision of all things made new.

Lent and Easter for Everyone

Tom Wright Offering seven weeks' worth of daily readings and reflections, Lent and Easter for Everyone enables you to relive Christ's journey - from his temptations in the wilderness to the darkness of the cross and beyond into the glory of Easter. Each reflection is drawn from a key passage in Wright's immensely popular For Everyone series, and each one ends with practical suggestions for personal reflection or group discussion. Available online and in all good bookshops.

Healing & Hope in the one household of God - Embrace the Middle East

In this Lent resource for small groups, Embrace the Middle East are offering participants the chance to reflect on Jesus’ message of healing and hope. Through a series of scriptural reflections from Christian Leaders working in the Middle East, we are invited to pray for healing and hope to rule our hearts, as we journey towards Easter.

Lent with the Beloved Disciple

The Rt Reverend Bishop Michael Marshall The 2024 Bloomsbury Lent Book invites you on a six-week journey in the company of the ‘beloved disciple’ as found in the narrative of the Gospel of St John. Ideal for both individual use and for small group study, Lent with the Beloved Disciple takes us into the heart of that Paschal Mystery, by which all things in heaven and earth are ultimately fulfilled in the risen and ascended Christ, who is ‘all in all.’ Available online and in all good bookshops.

Act on Poverty - Christian Aid

Christian Aid has teamed up with partner organisations across the UK to help churches gain a deeper understanding of poverty and empower Christians to act in the run up to the next UK general election. Designed for use during Lent or later in 2024, the six-week resource brings campaigners from the UK and global contexts into dialogue about the differences and similarities between their visions for an end to poverty.

The Infernal Word - Notes from a Rebel Angel

By Revd Nicholas Papadopulos The Infernal Word began as a series of addresses preached on Good Friday in Canterbury Cathedral. They make ideal seasonal reading for anyone who wishes to explore the story of salvation. Beneath their conversational and sardonic surface style, these infernal reflections engage deeply with the reality of a loving God who is made visible and vulnerable in Christ. Available online and in all good bookshops.

A Prayer for Lent 2024

O God, the author and source of all light,
Teach us to fix our eyes on your Son,
Following him through this season of Lent,
With faithfulness, resolution and hope.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ,
your Son, who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever.
Amen.

Spread the word

Please use this guide to inform your choice of Lent materials for 2024, and pass it on to others to whom it would be helpful, especially those in your church communities who might not know what is available to individuals, or who would benefit from following a program.

Watch and Pray

This Lent we are encouraged to wait expectantly for God to meet us and sustain us through the storms and trials we all face.

The Church of England’s Lent theme for 2024 is Watch and Pray: Wisdom and hope for Lent and life.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus kneels in darkness in the Garden of Gethsemane. Though he pleads with his disciples, “Stay here with me … Watch and pray,” they all fall asleep, leaving him alone in his hour of deepest suffering.

This Lent all of us are encouraged to draw on the wisdom of Black Spirituality, particularly the practice of “tarrying” (waiting) as a community to draw closer to Jesus and to each other. Combining exuberant singing, fervent prayer and quiet lament, such services typically take place at night and last somewhat longer than the “one hour” Jesus asked of those first followers.

This year’s resources have been inspired and informed by the 2024 Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent book, Tarry Awhile: Wisdom from Black Spirituality for people of faith by Selina Stone (SPCK). The daily reflections booklet for adults (CHP) exploring the same themes has been written by Carlton Turner, and there is also a daily challenge booklet for children and families (CHP).

Watch and Pray invites us to seek God in both familiar and unfamiliar places this Lent: in darkness and in quiet; in movement and migration; in the healing and transforming work of the Spirit; in the weeping of Holy Week and in the joy of Easter morning.

The Room Where It Happens

The Room Where It Happens is an exciting Lent course from 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.

The five sessions cover the following themes: Identity and Belonging; Ambition and Temptation; Forgiveness and Redemption; Love and Sacrifice; Hope and Courage through Adversity.

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.’

You can learn more and order you copy from either Darton, Longman & Todd or Eden.co.uk.

 

Page last updated: Monday 29th January 2024 2:19 PM
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