by The Rev Patrick Bateman, of All Saints Parish Church, Ilkley

LENT is upon us, Ash Wednesday in just under a week. It’s a season to refocus on God, live more simply and prayerfully as we approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Lent gives us 40 days in which God can transform our lives. This is a bold claim, given that old unhealthy habits die hard, but I am reliably informed it takes about 40 days of concerted focus to change some engrained patterns of thinking and being.

I offer this not only as an example for a particular season in our own church’s life, but the principal is transferable. At All Saints’, during Lent, we are going to have the duel focus of fasting and generosity. We will ask everyone in the church family to fast, give something up, with the hope that the money saved will be willingly and generously given to our church development project. We feel that we have been generously entrusted with our church building, a place of Christian worship for about 1400 years, and want to pass it on in good shape to serve our children's children's children.

We won’t be limiting these spiritual disciplines of fasting or generosity to our building project. Whilst fasting is incredibly powerful in keeping our wants in check; I wonder if it more significant to take something up rather than give something up. To this end we are going to draw on ideas from an organisation called Stewardship which sees Lent as an opportunity, “40 days of giving back, doing good and living generously” (www.40acts.org.uk). Some examples include, write a prayer to pray for our community during Lent, get together a generosity pack with things to give away, remember to smile (not in weird way), slightly more costly, but to host a meal or event and invite your neighbours, pick up littler when you see it, it costs nothing say thank you or find a word of praise etc. Contact our Parish Office if you don’t have access to the internet and we can print you a copy and post it to you (01943 816035). Our towns and villages will be in for a pleasant surprise if enough of us take up this initiative.

Whilst the ideas above will bring blessing… lest I forget or obscure the principle reason for the season… “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John’s Gospel 3:16). This discovery would be truly transformative and 40 days well spent.