New site offers easy access to devotional and worship resources available for use during Lent
by Emily Enders Odom, Mission Communications | Special to Presbyterian News Service
Photo by Jon Tyson via Unsplash
LOUISVILLE — Ash Wednesday — which falls this year on Feb. 14 — marks the beginning of the season of Lent, a 40-day period of prayer, fasting and self-examination which culminates in Holy Week and the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord at Easter.
“Although the season of Lent developed as a time of preparation for baptism in the early church,” said the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, associate for worship in the Office of Theology and Worship, “for those who are already baptized, it is an annual invitation to repentance, reconciliation, and the reaffirmation of our faith.”
Toward that end, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has created a new online landing page that offers a wide variety of devotional and worship resources from across the agencies of the PC(USA). The resources, many of which are free and downloadable, are suitable for use by individuals, congregations and mid councils.
“We embrace new disciplines not as spiritual homework, but in order to grow as disciples of Jesus and build up the body of Christ,” said Gambrell. “The hope is that these Lenten practices will spill over into Easter and beyond, forming lasting habits of faith and faithfulness and bearing fruit in new ways of life.”
The new website houses a host of useful resources from the Presbyterian Mission Agency, its ministry areas and partners, PC(USA) Special Offerings and the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, among others. New listings will be added to the landing page as additional resources become available.
“Lent is a call to renewal,” Gambrell said. “In the words of Psalm 51, a centerpiece of the Ash Wednesday liturgy, we pray, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me’ (Ps. 51:10). It is a call to renewal for individual disciples and for the whole people of God. We seek to be a part of God’s creative work in reforming the church, redeeming the nations, and restoring the earth.”
The page can be accessed here.
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Categories: Faith & Worship
Tags: faith and worship, lent resources, office of theology & worship, psalm 51:10, rev. dr. david gambrell
Ministries: Theology and Worship, Theology, Formation & Evangelism