Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Sat 9th Feb
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)
Two million people are living in camps in Darfur after the recent conflict drove them from their homes. Give 50p for each floor of your home.
Roger
Saturday, 9 February 2008
Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Friday 8th Feb(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)
Tea pickers in Sri Lanka earn around £1 per day. Count £1 if you bought an item costing more than that today.
Roger
Tea pickers in Sri Lanka earn around £1 per day. Count £1 if you bought an item costing more than that today.
Roger
Friday, 8 February 2008
Muffins, Coffee, Gin, Online Poker and Sex!!!
Recently read this in a newspaper:
"Yes, it’s Lent, when people with an iron will or a well-developed sense of self-delusion waltz into the office and announce with insane certainty that for the next forty days and nights they will be giving up muffins, coffee, gin, online poker or sex, or anything else that makes life worth living. And they will be entering into this marathon of self-denial at exactly the time of year when they need those things the most".
Are these really the things that makes life worth living?
I wonder what you may be giving up for lent and is it something that really makes life worth living?
"I've had many things in my hand and I've lost them all but the things that I've placed in God's hands I still possess" - Martin Luther
"Yes, it’s Lent, when people with an iron will or a well-developed sense of self-delusion waltz into the office and announce with insane certainty that for the next forty days and nights they will be giving up muffins, coffee, gin, online poker or sex, or anything else that makes life worth living. And they will be entering into this marathon of self-denial at exactly the time of year when they need those things the most".
Are these really the things that makes life worth living?
I wonder what you may be giving up for lent and is it something that really makes life worth living?
"I've had many things in my hand and I've lost them all but the things that I've placed in God's hands I still possess" - Martin Luther
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Count your blessings - Lent 2008 - material from Christian Aid: Thursday 7th Feb
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)
More than a billion children will not go to school this year. Count 20p for every year you have spent in full time education.
Roger
(The way this works is that you you keep a running total each day, according to what it says. At the end I will give you the address to send a donation in to Christian Aid if you are willing and can still afford to!)
More than a billion children will not go to school this year. Count 20p for every year you have spent in full time education.
Roger
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Lent
Lent has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I grew up in a church tradition which seemed to mark Lent and to remember it, but then didn't really know quite what to do with it. We did seem to have Lent Bible Study groups (some years) and people did talk about giving something up for Lent (although it did all seem rather casual and soemtimes half hearted). So what's it all about?
Lent has traditionally been a time of self denial. Lent was held at that time of the year when self denial wasn't too difficult because the stocks of food from the previous year's harvest were running low after the winter. Today the stocks of food only get low in the supermarkets when the petrol tankers stop running or after the locusts have doen their annual swarm just ebfore the Christmas holiday.
Now anyone who has seen me in recent years knows that my waist line would benefit from a little bit of self denial, but self denial is meant not just to be a negative thing but a positive thing: by not spending money on sweets or alcohol you free up money that might be given to the poor or other good causes; by getting up earlier in the morning you might be able to spend more time in prayer; by not watching a certain TV programme you might be able to spend the time reading the Bible or helping someone else out.
However I think Lent is also about preparing for Easter, getting our mind, heart and soul in a state in which we can understand best what happened on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
I'm going to try and follow a book of daily readings over Lent to help me do that.
Throughout Lent from now on we'll be pausing for ten minutes of reflection and prayer at 12.15 and 3.15 in the Chaplaincy downstairs room - please do join us if you can. The exception will be from February 18th to 22nd when we shall be taking part in a 24:7 prayer vigil. For more information about this and everything else we do in chaplaincy get in touch.
Lent has traditionally been a time of self denial. Lent was held at that time of the year when self denial wasn't too difficult because the stocks of food from the previous year's harvest were running low after the winter. Today the stocks of food only get low in the supermarkets when the petrol tankers stop running or after the locusts have doen their annual swarm just ebfore the Christmas holiday.
Now anyone who has seen me in recent years knows that my waist line would benefit from a little bit of self denial, but self denial is meant not just to be a negative thing but a positive thing: by not spending money on sweets or alcohol you free up money that might be given to the poor or other good causes; by getting up earlier in the morning you might be able to spend more time in prayer; by not watching a certain TV programme you might be able to spend the time reading the Bible or helping someone else out.
However I think Lent is also about preparing for Easter, getting our mind, heart and soul in a state in which we can understand best what happened on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
I'm going to try and follow a book of daily readings over Lent to help me do that.
Throughout Lent from now on we'll be pausing for ten minutes of reflection and prayer at 12.15 and 3.15 in the Chaplaincy downstairs room - please do join us if you can. The exception will be from February 18th to 22nd when we shall be taking part in a 24:7 prayer vigil. For more information about this and everything else we do in chaplaincy get in touch.
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Lent arrives early this year
Lent is almost here! I think we had sixty to seventy people in the chaplaincy at lunchtime today eating free pancakes for Shrove Tuesday and free chocolate from the taste for Life Fair Trade stall.
Before anyone starts saying that Lent seems to get earlier every year - it actually has this year. Because of the wierd way that the date for Easter is calculated Easter is as early as it can be this year (that's why this term ends on March 14th) hence Lent starts on February 6th.
Tomorrow there will be a service for Asdh Wednesday in the Chaplaincy Lounge from 1.30.
After that every weekday to mark Lent there will be a short time of prayer in the chaplaincy downstairs room at 12.15 and 3.15 tll the end of term with the exception of 17th-24th February when we shall be using the room for a 24/7 prayer vigil. Please do come and join us.
Before anyone starts saying that Lent seems to get earlier every year - it actually has this year. Because of the wierd way that the date for Easter is calculated Easter is as early as it can be this year (that's why this term ends on March 14th) hence Lent starts on February 6th.
Tomorrow there will be a service for Asdh Wednesday in the Chaplaincy Lounge from 1.30.
After that every weekday to mark Lent there will be a short time of prayer in the chaplaincy downstairs room at 12.15 and 3.15 tll the end of term with the exception of 17th-24th February when we shall be using the room for a 24/7 prayer vigil. Please do come and join us.
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