Dear Friends,

I recently heard an interview on the radio with a lady who was a superfan of the band Depeche Mode. They have been together as a band over 40 years and as this lady was celebrating her 60th birthday, she planned to see them 3 times over the course of a year in different European cities. Since her teenage years, she reckoned she had seen them play live over 50 times. She struck me as someone who was truly dedicated as a follower. She had all their albums and every book that had been written about them.

We sometimes see similar levels of dedication among sports fans who will follow their team to matches home and away, week in, week out. It takes a lot of commitment to be such a dedicated fan as there will be difficult seasons, bad results, losses of form and perhaps relegations to a lower league to cope with on that journey.

Lent is a season in the church’s calendar when people have the opportunity to think about what it looks like to be a dedicated follower of Jesus in an increasingly divided and complex world.

Churches both locally and globally will often put on programmes to help people to think about this question and we in St. Finnian’s are no exception. This year we are looking together at what it means to be a follower of Jesus over the 6 weeks of Lent. We will be looking at some of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew chapters 5-7 and using the writings of a renowned German theologian and pastor called Dietrich Bonhoeffer who died in a German concentration camp in 1945 as a result of his opposition to Adolf Hitler and the rise of Nazism in Germany.

Ryan, our Curate, will be looking at Bonhoeffer’s teaching on following Jesus, much of which was written in prison. These are the proposed sessions which will take place on Thursdays in church at 7.30pm beginning on 19th February.

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.

Much of the teaching will come from Jesus’ teaching and Bonhoeffer’s classic books – “Life Together” and “The Cost of Discipleship.”

During Holy Week we are inviting a number of guests to share what following Jesus looks like in their daily lives. The line-up remains to be confirmed but we are excited to have some very diverse and interesting people to share their experiences with us. We hope that if people invest 35-40 minutes of their time on Thursday evenings, it will help people to grow in faith and understanding and think about these things in their own lives.

If I were to summarise my own ambition for Lent 2026, it’s how might I become a closer follower of Jesus? There is always so much to learn and we are grateful to Ryan for sharing his research and scholarship and hopefully stimulating much thought among us. We hope you will be able to join us on this special journey.

With very best wishes,

Jonathan Pierce (Rector)

Telephone 02890 793822