People looking for spiritual inspiration during Lent are invited to reflect with their bishop every week throughout the season which begins on Wednesday (March 9).
Three bishops will be leading courses most weekday evenings for the next five weeks in churches across South Wales.
The Archbishop of Wales, the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff and the Bishop of Monmouth hope people will make it their Lent resolution to “take up” their talks during the season of reflection which leads up to Easter.
The Archbishop, Dr Barry Morgan, and the Assistant Bishop, David Wilbourne, will be focusing on one theme a week at three different venues – St Tydfil’s Church, Merthyr Tydfil (Tuesdays), St Theodore’s Church, Port Talbot (Wednesdays) and All Saints Church, Llandaff North (Thursdays). The themes are: believing, belonging, becoming, behaving and betraying.
Meanwhile, the Bishop of Monmouth, Dominic Walker, will be giving 25 talks over five weeks – every weekday evening – on St Luke and his message for today. The venues are: St Cadoc’s church, Raglan (Mondays), St Peter’s Church, Blaina (Tuesdays), Newport Cathedral (Wednesdays), Pontprennau Community Church Centre (Thursdays) and St Mary’s Church, Magor (Fridays).
The Archbishop said the evenings in the Llandaff Diocese would be a mixture of worship, fellowship, talk and discussion. He said, “People tend to think of Lent in a negative way – a season of abstinence, self-denial and temptation when we should give something up. But it’s really a time of hope and promise when we can take up something new. Hopefully people will decide to take up these evening events and join us as we explore and refresh our faith.”
Bishop Dominic, whose last Lent course attracted 800 people a week, said, “St Luke wrote more of the New Testament than any other writer – he wrote the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He was a great story writer who engaged his audience, and I hope that I can engage people as I try to relate those stories to our Christian lives today.
“Each week I shall give the same talk every day, so if those interested cannot make the same day each week they can always try another venue.”
All the talks begin next week (from March 14) and start at 7.30pm (8pm at Newport Cathedral) and everyone is welcome to attend.
