Dear Friends,

With Easter falling early this year our thoughts are turning to the season of Lent which begins in February. Rather like January, when people start the year with noble aspirations and resolutions about self- improvement, a healthier diet, exercise, perhaps learning a new skill or mastering a new language, the season of Lent often affords us opportunities to start afresh or go deeper in our spiritual lives.

Sometimes I like to plan to read a book or two in manageable chunks each day that I think will benefit my spiritual life or help me to grow in my understanding of God. Sometimes I try to listen to some talks or podcasts that, again, I feel will help me in my devotional life.

Life for all of us is busy and sometimes our spiritual life becomes the first casualty of our busyness. We decide to miss church once or twice and suddenly it’s a month since we have been. We are in a busy season at work and we stop making the time to read our Bibles daily or to pray. We tell ourselves God won’t mind and that He will understand and when we return to our readings we discover we don’t have the same hunger or appetite for it any more and it can begin to slip off our radar altogether.

In St. Finnian’s we try to offer some prompts to help people to do something meaningful or tangible for their spiritual life in the context of church. This year we are focussing our thoughts on the topic of discipleship and what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the world today.

On the 6 Thursdays of Lent, our Curate, Reverend Dr. Ryan Hawk will be guiding us through passages in Matthew 5-7 through the lens of the German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who died during World War 2.

The proposed outline for these 6 weeks are : –

Week 1: The cost of discipleship – cheap grace v costly grace.

Week 2: Community – Christian community means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ.

Week 3: The day together – the responsibility of the gathered body.

Week 4: The day alone – the responsibility of the individual disciple.

Week 5: Servanthood and mission.

Week 6: Confession and Communion.

Each of these services, which will last 30-35 minutes, will be on Thursday nights in church beginning on 19th February at 7.30pm.

We hope that you will be able to join us.

During Holy Week we are hoping to invite a series of speakers who will share what discipleship looks like in their daily lives and context.

At the end of January we are looking forward to a 3-week series exploring the subject of hope. It’s called Hope Explored and will run on Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm in the coffee bar. The 3 sessions will focus on Hope, Peace and Purpose.

We have always found a great joy in coming together for groups like this which offer a safe space for people to share ideas and experiences and enjoy fellowship together. Sometimes little bursts of spiritual activity like this allow things to touch us and grip our souls and lead us into a deeper faith and understanding of all that God has done for us. They also offer a great way in for those who are curious, so if you have friends, neighbours or family members who are always asking you questions about faith and church, it’s a great thing to invite them to come along and have a think about these questions.

Our prayer is that however you choose to observe this 40-day period, God will be at work in your life and that you will grow closer to Him and that He will shape your character and your life more and more, so that collectively we become more like Jesus.

With very best wishes.

Jonathan Pierce (Rector)

Telephone 02890 793822