We’ve got a great programme of events for Lent this year as we dwell ‘Around the Cross’ with Jesus. More details of the events can be found below.
Ash Wednesday – 5th March (at St Mary’s)
We begin with our Ash Wednesday Service at St Mary’s between 7-8pm.
After a short break we will go into our ‘Half Night of Prayer’ from 8:15-11pm. Come for 5 minutes or for the whole three hours as we gather to listen, to pray and to share together a Chase Team.
8:15 – 8:45 – Time of worship
8:45- 9:15 – Led prayer time – Courageously sowing seeds. A time of praying and waiting on God to pray for seeds He is calling us to sow in this season.
9:30 – 10:15 – Led prayer time – Seeds of faith, hope and love in the Chase Team, including prayer for: St Mary’s; Alpha; CAP; Children & Youth
10:30 -11:00 Led prayer time – Seeds of faith, hope and love for the world, including prayer for: the world; our mission partners
Monday Lent Lunches 12:30-2pm (All Saints)
Each Monday of Lent (excluding Holy Week) we will be having a simple soup lunch at All Saints for anyone from our churches or communities. There will be a toddler area for little ones and at about 1pm each day we will share a brief ‘thought for the day.’ We hope people of all ages will come and join us and do invite friends from the wider community too to come and join us. There will be no charge for the lunch but we invite you to leave a donation if you wish.
Monday Evenings in Lent: Around the Cross… (at St Andrew’s)
Each Monday of Lent we will be gathering for an hour at St Andrew’s 7-8pm to ‘Dwell around the cross’ with Jesus and encounter Him in different ways:
Monday 10th March – ‘Characters of the cross’ – Dave Bruce will be leading us into a time of ‘Imaginative Conteplation’ as we hear some of the stories of those who were around the cross that day and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us as we imagine ourselves in the story.
Monday 17th March – ‘Music of the cross’ – Helen Wilkinson will lead us as we reflect on some of the famous pieces of music written about the cross and the passion of Christ.
Monday 24th March – ‘Silence of the cross’ – Emily will lead us into a time of stilless and silence as we sit around the cross and allow God to speak to us.
Monday 31st March – ‘Scenes of the cross’ – Geoff Vevers will lead us into looking at famous paintings of the Passion and “seeing salvation.”
Monday 7th April March – ‘Finding yourself at the cross’ – Dave and Emily will conclude our Lent Mondays by leading us into a time of reflection of where we see ourselves in relation to the cross.
Other Events
Monday 17th March 8pm at St Andrew’s (after the Around the Cross session): ‘Encountering the Wall’ Dave will be following on his talk about the different stages of our discipleship journey (at the Six on 2nd March) by unpacking a little more about ‘encountering the wall’ – that time where we hit life crises or where we find our faith juist does not seem to work any more and we get ‘stuck’ and may feel we don’t fit church anymore. Dave will unpack some of the characteristics of this difficult stage of our discipleship journey and share some practical reflections on how we might ‘journey through the wall’ to a deeper and more mature faith.
Saturday 29th March 9:30am – 1pm – Quiet Morning at All Saints: `In the deserts of the heart ,with Jesus` Paul Hunt wil be leading our Lent retreat morning reflecting particularly on:
`in the deserts of the heart, let the healing fountain start.
In the prison of His days, teach the free man how to praise` (W.H.Auden)
Sunday 30th March 6pm at St Andrew’s – Lent Worship and Waiting. Our popular time at the SIX service of ‘worship and waiting on God’ as we continue to gather around the cross.