What I wonder does Lent mean to you. No biscuits?Giving up chocolate? Lent is an opportunity to make space for God, both through our own times of prayer and reflection and through times shared with others. Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days to pray. So beginning on Ash Wednesday and going through to Easter Day we seek to find and follow God as we journey in faith.Here are some suggestions that you may want to consider. They include things to read or listen to; they embrace the practical and the prayerful. There are things we can do on our own or with others.Whatever we choose, I hope we enjoy Lent and find ourselves drawing closer to God, so that come Easter we’re ready to rejoice in the risen Lord.Revd Cathy Dakin, February 2023Join with others . . .• Dust and Glory: A Lent journey of faith, failure and forgiveness is the Church of England’s Lent theme. It invites us to take a fresh look at the frustrations and failings that every day brings, seeking to learn from them and grow closer to God through them. Dust and Glory links with a Lent book, 'Failure' (see below), material from which we’ll be using in our Lent Course. Also a small booklet, Dust and Glory, that has a daily Bible reading, short reflection and practical challenge, and a prayer for the week. For details of the wide range of free digital resources available follow https://www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/what-we-believe/lent-holy-week-and-easter/dust-and-glory-resources-lent-2023• Quiet Days offer a chance to take time out from daily life and experience the peace of God’s presence. Quiet Days are held in Retreat Centres and other settings. A Deanery Quiet Day was held on Saturday 25th February at St Lawrence Church, Gnosall. The day included short reflections, prayer and times of quiet and creativity. Connect with God’s creation . . .• Join Christians of all denominations in the work of caring for creation and helping to address climate change. Eco Church, A Rocha UK’s award scheme for churches, has suggestions for connecting with God’s creation as a church, as a family or asan individual. Download the Lenten Resource from https://arocha.org.uk/connect-with-gods-creation-over-lent/Read …Where to begin? The Bible . . .• Reflections for Lent is a compact book offering a short order for Morning Prayer from Common Worship, references for the daily lectionary Bible readings and a short reflection by contributors including Bishop Graham James and Paula Gooder. The book begins with short essays on prayer and Lent and ends with an order for Compline.• New Daylight published by Bible Reading Fellowship offers Daily Bible readings throughout the year. Journeying through Lent provides short daily reading with reflections by well-loved contributors, at an affordable price.There’s a wide choice of new books, including . . .• Failure: What Jesus said about sin, mistakes and messing stuff up is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book. The author, Emma Ineson, asks what failure is, as human beings and as a Church. She explores what Jesus said about failure, how he trained his disciples for it, how he spent time with failures, and how all this might relate to us today.Emma Ineson has co-written the daily reflections booklet linked with the Church of England’s Lent theme (see above).• Images of Grace: A journey from darkness to light at Easter published by the Bible Reading Fellowship. The author, Amy Scott Robinson, takes a word Christians rely on – sin, forgiveness, grace, and so on – and looks at what it means through apattern of scripture, a contemporary parallel, and prayer.• 40 days with Labyrinths, a modern take on a time-honoured spiritual practice. Fay Rowland offers forty short, biblical meditations on the challenges and blessings of daily life, each accompanied by a diagram of a labyrinth to 'walk', colour or decorate as you reflect on the reading.Listen . . .• A Passion for Hospitality: Lent resources complementing BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Worship and Daily Service https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5bGxRHdTsFwpJhTpjQR5g4y/a-passion- for-hospitality• Lent talks on BBC Radio 4: Six people well known in their fields reflect on the story of Jesus' ministry and Passion from their personal and professional experience. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006xp1x• Lent Podcasts offered by Retreat Centres and Cathedrals and organisations such as Christian Aid and All We Can provide a wider perspective on faith issues.
The Easter Cross will be on the church wall at the end of the lawn the week before Easter. Please help us to celebrate this important season by adding posies to the cross. Photo shows last year's Cross beautifully decorated. We hope to have an equally decorated cross this Easter, please help us to share the beauty.There will be a service of Holy Communion on Easter Sunday 9th April, at 11am taken by Reverend Cathy.
The Easter Cross will be on the church wall at the end of the lawn the week before Easter. Please help us to celebrate this important season by adding posies to the cross. Photo shows last year's Cross beautifully decorated. Let's hope this year's cross can be as even more beautiful.There will be a service of Holy Communion on Easter Sunday, 9th April 2023 at 11am taken by Reverend Cathy.
During the week-end of 13th, 14th August there will be an exciting display of Scarecrows on a theme of Children's Characters from books, films or cartoons. To date there will be 52 exhibits through out the villages of Moreton and Outwoods. A trail & quiz with prizes for those visitors who can identify the most scarecrows. There will be Craft stalls in the Millennium Community Hall, Church Lane, Moreton TF10 9DS during Saturday. Refreshments will be on sale in the Hall, during the day on Saturday (10-4pm) and Sunday afternoon. Other attractions include Military Tanks, alpacas and donkeys as well as live music on Sunday afternoon in the Hall. Make your way to the Millennium Hall to start the fun filled week-end.This event was a great success with over 400 visitors over the weekend who came to see the 57 Scarecrows, Military tanks and vintage tractors as well as enjoying refreshments whilst listening to live music. A total of £1900 was raised for the Church. Thank you to everyone who took part in some way and helped to make this our successful third Scarecrow Festival.
