From Rev'd Louise

Monthly reflection

February 2026 Lent - Draw near

This year Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is on Wednesday 18th February. I’m guessing that many people know that Lent is 40 days long, and comes before Easter. But what Lent is all about may be a mystery, and certainly means different things for different people.

I remember growing up knowing that Lent was a time when you gave things up, without really knowing why, and mostly seeing Lent as an opportunity to kick-start again those New Year resolutions that had fallen by the wayside. I still remember my confusion when I discovered that Lent is only 40 days long if you don’t count the Sundays, because some people believed that you shouldn’t give things up on Sundays, which to my teenage self felt like cheating!

As I gradually discovered more about the Christian faith that I claimed for my own as a teenager, I learned that the Christian Church understands Lent as a period of reflection on our faith, a time of reflecting on how well the way we live actually reflects the values we believe in. So while giving up things that are self-indulgent or that distract us from the most important things in life might be part of Lent, it doesn’t have to be. Modern churches are far more likely to focus on the reason behind Lent, and to encourage people to focus on things that help us to live in a way that reflects God’s values of love and care and justice.

This year the Church of England is encouraging people to share together some resources called ‘Draw Near.’ Throughout the six weeks of Lent, these resources help people to focus on values and activities that are important to living as a Christian; sharing worship, sharing prayer, sharing the Scriptures, sharing Communion, sharing service and sharing the Good News. There are ‘40 acts’ activities for individuals and families to share throughout Lent to help a focus on ‘Doing Lent Generously.’ For example, on Ash Wednesday we are encouraged to ‘Make a helping hands poster by tracing your hand on paper and writing or drawing five ways you could help someone this week. Colour in a finger each time you achieve one.’ I know that I am looking forward to this year’s Lent focus on the simple things that we can all do to help us live well with one another, to help us build Christ-like communities of caring, and I am looking forward to the activities!

So this year, I invite you to do two things; I invite you to consider joining me in using these resources, and I invite you to find someone else who is also ‘keeping Lent’ – either using these resources or some other way, and to talk together about what Lent means to you. And my prayer is that God will bless us through all that we do this year to ‘Do Lent Generously,’ and will use our thoughts and our prayers and our actions to bless others.

If you would like to sign up to receive a weekly reflection, or to receive the regular newsletters from churches and Christian groups across Hope Valley, please go to https://mailchi.mp/2c07821b33f6/sign-up-for-ponder-and-pray or https://mailchi.mp/cbb9a512a36e/hope-valley-christians-newsletter or email me on [email protected] and I can sign you up.

December2025 Coming, ready or not

I wonder how early you start ‘getting ready for Christmas’? I know people who prepare all year by buying gifts that N would like throughout the year, when they see them. And sometimes I wish I was that well organised. And many shops seem to start encouraging us to shop for Christmas when it still feels to me like summer. But for me the beginning of December is usually about the time when I realise just how quickly Christmas is approaching, and how little I have done.

Amidst all my inevitable busyness at this time of year, I always make time during Advent to reflect on what we are actually celebrating at Christmas. One of the names Christians use for Jesus is ‘Emmanuel’, which means ‘God with us,’ As part of my preparation each year for Christmas, I reflect on the awesome miracle that God loves the world – loves you and me and all that he has made - so much that he chose to be born as one of us – as ‘God with us.’ That miracle never ceases to amaze me, and many of my most treasured memories connected with Christmas, are about ways in which people bless one another, reflecting something of God’s love.

Before moving back to Derbyshire, I had years when I was able to volunteer as a Street Pastor in Leicester City Centre. One of my greatest blessings in the approach to Christmas was undoubtedly the time we were able to spend with the homeless of Leicester. Each year they would teach me more about the true spirit of Christmas. I remember numerous occasions sitting in doorways with homeless people while they spoke of the pain of being cold and hungry, and the far greater pain of being completely ignored by busy shoppers rushing about buying things they did not need. And of course, I remembered at these times that Jesus was born particularly to show God’s love for the poor and neglected.

I remember too, the incredible generosity the homeless so often showed towards others. On one particularly cold night, when the temperature had fallen to about -12C, we gave a sleeping bag to a young girl shivering in a shop doorway. Her face lit up with pure joy. ‘You’re so wonderful,’ she told us, ‘Now I can give my blanket to X who doesn’t have one.’

So my prayer for us all this month, is that we can all be more touched by the spirit of God, that shone so clearly through that girl who could fit all her possessions into a carrier bag and yet still had enough to give to others. And I pray that we may also share something of the joy that radiated from her.

November 2025 Acorns and God

Many sources this year, from the Woodland Trust to the BBC, have been commenting on the fact that this year is a ‘mast year’, a year when there is a particular abundance of acorns and other fruits and seeds. In the middle of October, Derby Diocese holds its annual Clergy Conference, and this year I came home from Clergy Conference with two acorns in my pocket. What, you might ask, do acorns have to do with a clergy conference?

Well, the theme of this year’s Clergy Conference was ‘The parable of the sower,’ a parable Jesus told about a sower throwing seeds lavishly over good soils and bad; throwing seed over the path, over rocky ground, and among thorns and weeds, as well as onto good soil; throwing the seed into places where it had very little chance of growing and producing a harvest, as well as into places where it was likely to grow.

As you can imagine, over the last 2000 years there have been many interpretations of this parable. Often commentators picture the ‘seed’ as being the knowledge of God and his love for us, and they explain they how we can be like the various soils, with many things preventing the love of God really ‘taking root’ in our lives, but how when it does we produce a ‘rich harvest’ of good in the world. God is pictured as like the sower, lavishing his love and his care on both those who will respond and those who won’t.

Jesus regularly taught about God, using examples from the natural world, and several speakers at this year’s Clergy Conference focused on how the natural world, God’s creation, reveals God’s character. One speaker spoke about God’s character revealed in the extravagant abundance of nature, telling us how in its life time a healthy oak tree produces about a million acorns – hence the acorns in my pocket - (although only one is needed to replace the tree itself), and how that extravagant abundance of the oak tree sustains other life in countless ways. Another speaker spoke of their ‘church in the wilderness’, meeting in forgotten or waste places, inviting in passers-by, and learning how God relates to us by noticing, and observing closely, how a community of life and growth emerges and flourishes, in places that we may tend not to value.

So this month, my challenge and my prayer for myself is to seek to become better at looking closely at the natural world around me, and letting it teach me about God. And my invitation to all of us is to join me on that adventure.