Lent

Lent (Mar 5 – Apr 19, 2025) offers an opportunity for individuals and worshipping communities to discover new depths to prayer and spiritual growth, as we live LIFE Together.

Add Lent and Easter events to AChurchNearYou.com or head to the Resource Hub to customise Lent social media graphics and videos, download free stock photography, music and more.

The Church of England’s Lent theme for 2025 is ‘Living Hope’

This Lent we are encouraged to put down deep roots of hope by connecting with God who is with us at all times. The Church of England’s Lent theme for 2025 is Living Hope.

Visit the CofE page here for further information and resources →
(See also: 2024’s recommended Lent book →)

Shapes for Living: online resources

A free 5-week Lent course to help you find balance in your life. ‘Life in all its fullness’ is the gift God wants for all of us, but if we are to live that calling well, we will need to find a sustainable, nurturing shape for our own lives, so easily over-busy with stressful and overwhelming demands.
Visit the Shapes for Living page

Experience Lent and Easter teaching resources from Jumping Fish

Lent and Easter are important times in the Christian calendar and yet it is often a challenge to explain their significance to children and to our wider worshipping communities. The interactive ideas offered in these resources, offer a chance to hear about and reflect on the journey of Lent using interactive stations.

‘Experience Lent’ and ‘Experience Easter follow a similar pattern to other Experience Journeys in the series such as Experience Easter and Experience Christmas. These materials have proved extremely popular in a wide range of contexts from tiny rural parishes to major cathedrals in our large cities.

After Easter: free activity resource

This After-Easter session from Growing Together focuses on the story of Jesus’ resurrection and how his friends realized the world would never be the same. It includes an engaging double-sided sheet featuring a central question, a story about the disciples returning to their normal lives and encountering Jesus, and a variety of activities designed for both adults and children to reflect on together.

Download or print the resource here →

The Clewer Initiative’s ‘Waiting in the Wilderness’

The Clewer Initiative’s Lent course, seeks to both portray the wilderness experience of victims of modern slavery and inspire individuals, churches and communities to go out into the wilderness, where victims are waiting and bring hope and healing.

Visit the Clewer website here

Environmental resources for small groups

Four quick suggestions to try for those looking for resources for small groups:

Environmental resources for small groups →

Personal Shapes for Living

Personal Shapes for Living, using key subjects from the Lent course, offers individual Christians, however young or old, a chance to explore the shape of their life by chatting to another person. Contact Ruth Cameron to get started: ku.gr1741017795o.coi1741017795dsolg1741017795@nore1741017795macr1741017795

Fruitfulness on the Front Line

This eight-session course helps us to see how God might have been working in and through us on our frontlines and imagine what more God might want to do there. Brimming with real-life stories, biblical insight, and practical steps, these resources will spark your imagination and enrich your sense of wonder at the greatness and grace of the God who invites us to join his glorious work.
Resources are available on the LICC website →

Loved and Liked: six-session course

Loved and Liked – the six-session course offers then chance to explore how we are all uniquely made and that God actually loves and likes us. It looks at questions of identity, calling and service, and includes amazing true stories of local people.

Using easily downloadable videos and materials the course is freely available via:
www.lovedandliked.life →

Bishop Rachel’s book, Encounters: Jesus, connection and story: past, present and future

A good read for Lent ~ Bishop Rachel spends summer 2019 reconnecting with key people and places from her life, and also spends two weeks near the Lake of Galilee, reflecting on Jesus’ encounters with people as detailed in the Gospels.
Further information →

The Pilgrim Way

Bishop Rachel and Bishop Robert enter into a short conversation sparked by each of the sections outlined in The Church of England booklet The Pilgrim Way: The Apostles’ Creed; the Lord’s Prayer; the Commandments; and the Beatitudes.
The Pilgrim Way series and booklet →

Pilgrim Journeys

A series of booklets which can be followed during Lent. Written by Bishop Steven Croft, each booklet offers 40 short daily Bible reflections, prayers, and suggestions for how you might respond to Jesus’ teachings in your own life.
Visit the Pilgrim Journeys webpage →