It was excellent to see such a good turnout to the Ash Wednesday communion and seminar last week. I was encouraged by everyone’s presence, and I hope and pray that we were uplifted by the service and spurred on by the seminar to seek God through our devotions (“quiet times” of Bible and prayer) during Lent.
Lent is known as a time of self-denial, and I think it can be helpful to “give something up” for Lent, as a reminder that we are in ourselves desperately needy in the absence of God’s provision. However, self-denial has never been the only aspect of Lent. It has also traditionally been a time of reflection on one’s spiritual situation. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5). This should generate some self-awareness of my own sins and deliberate plans for working against these sins in my life in order to be more pleasing to God.
For all of this, there is nothing more helpful than reading the Bible to be reminded of just how good God has been to us and of how he wants us to respond to his grace. To this end, I hope you will pick up a set of our Lenten readings in 1 Peter and use them each day.
In brief, our Annual Vestry Meeting (annual meeting of the members of the parish) will be held in two Sundays’ time, on 24th March at 11.30 am. The main activities are hearing reports regarding the ministry and the property and finances of the church, as well as electing important officeholders: wardens, parish councillors and parish nominators. Let me encourage you to come along. If you are involved in any ministry activity, I would love you to submit a report, ideally by the end of this coming week.