What is justice? It's a question we encounter everywhere in life and over the last few years has increasingly demanded an answer. Most human beings have a natural sense of justice. We don’t think it right that people can commit offenses and get away with them. We look at our wonderful world, recognising the imperfections, caused by prejudice on both a large and small scale. We acknowledge that we too have participated, sometimes unconsciously. March 2nd marks the beginning of Lent, which for Christians is a time of fasting, of choosing to go without, where we seek to reflect on our own responsibility and accountability before God.

This year we are using the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book as inspiration for the season. The material invites us on a journey through the Bible to discover how we, as churches, communities, and individual Christians, can seek to practice justice even in such a fractured world. We will reflect on the injustices of the world, asking what God is calling us to do about them, recognising we are called to be speakers and seekers of justice.

The six weeks will take us from climate and economic justice to gender and racial equality, helping us understand justice from a biblical perspective, and inspire us to seek it in every aspect of our lives. We will step into God’s work in the here and now. In doing so we can begin to move from brokenness towards wholeness.

We will be using a variety of opportunities to engage with the topic that are listed below, and there are some resources you might like to obtain. The ever popular ‘Live Lent’ series gives a short reflection, Bible passage, prayer and practical challenge, with the kids’ edition also providing a fun daily activity to help families take the theme further. The #LiveLent app will be available with all the material to hand. We will join with the other churches in Alcester to study the sessions and our worship on Sundays will also pick up the themes.

Our prayer is that this may be a time for us, in community, or personally – to see afresh God's mission of transformation and to embrace his justice in the world.

Monday 9.15am St Nicholas Alcester Lenten Prayer

Tuesday 12.00pm prayer using Zoom (online)

Wednesday 12.00pm Soup and Reflection – Alcester Baptist Church

7.00pm Lent Study – Our Lady and St Joseph Church Hall

Thursday 9.15am St Peter’s Coughton Prayer

For details of the material: https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/livelent-2022-church-resources-embracing-justice