Churches across the diocese have been preparing for Lent, a time of reflection and fasting in the lead up to Easter. Many congregations have held special prayer services, times of personal reflection and marked Ash Wednesday. It has also been an opportunity to invite families and the wider community into the church with the celebration of Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day).
St Alban’s Church, Swaythling Parish
Swaything Parish chose the theme of ‘Love and Pancakes’ for their Messy Church last Sunday. There were pancakes to make and flip and activities to take part in as they prepared for Lent and Easter.
Messy Church co-ordinator Sarah Dockree writes, “Our Messy Church theme this month was great fun as we gathered together to explore how we might prepare our hearts for God during Lent. Plenty of pancakes were tossed, decorated and consumed and much fun was had! During our celebration, we were challenged to think about all the unnecessary ‘stuff’ we carry around that Jesus might be asking us to let go of as we get ready for Easter – we all agreed amidst lots of laughter that we don’t need a hairdryer and straighteners with us when we go camping! Messy Church provides an important opportunity in this Parish to connect with families who otherwise don’t come to church and to journey together as we explore issues of faith in fun, creative and relevant ways”.
St James Church Pokesdown
Like many churches, St James in Pokesdown has marked Ash Wednesday. Each year, the church invites pupils from local school, St James Primary Academy, to join the service with year 6 students helping to lead the proceedings.
To prepare for this, the children met Revd Rachel Noel at church last Friday to talk about the importance of Lent and Ash Wednesday, to write prayers and to burn the previous year’s palm crosses to make the ash ready to use in the service.
St Mary’s Church, Parish of Sholing
The church hosted a pancake party on Tuesday afternoon, greeting many young people as they came out of school. This was the second year they have run the event, and it was so popular that supplies ran out before the hour was up. It offers a chance for the community to come together and to spread the love of Jesus.
Revd Garry Roberts said, “We have one of many primary schools in our parish right on our doorstep and we are on the route than many other children take each day on the way to school. We love nothing more than following the model of the radical hospitality of Jesus, blessing these amazing young people (and their parents/carers) at any opportunity, so Pancake Day is a perfect day for it. If we do it again next year, we are going to need to buy even more supplies and will maybe run on a bit longer for the secondary school children (two of whom were lucky to grab the last few pancakes).”
He continued, “I find that so many people in our community want to engage with us but sadly over the years they have felt they have no connection to the church and from what they see in the media, have come to think we Christians are a bit weird. Showing our common love with others, with events like stuffing our faces with pancakes, chocolate and cream, is a great way to break down those barriers. The conversations I have at such events are brilliant and this year we met a family who recently moved across the city and loved the opportunity to meet some local people.”
Winchester Cathedral
Tuesday saw the annual pancake race at Winchester Cathedral. 36 teams, many in fancy dress, took part from local businesses, schools and charities. They raced and flipped pancakes over a 38m track outside the front of the ancient building. There were prizes for the best costume, best name and overall race winner. People lined the route to cheer the teams on.
The event is organised by Winchester Rotary in partnership with the Cathedral and has been taking place since 2019. It was started by interim Dean of Winchester Canon Roly Riem who told the crowd, “Contrary to popular opinion Lent is not a time to be gloomy, it’s a time to look forward with joy and happiness to Easter and to anticipate that day is a great thing. We are very pleased for the money raised for charity. It is great that you are all here today to support good causes and show off your amazing costumes.”
This year the race raised money for the charity Winchester Street Reach.
Ascension Church, Southampton
On Saturday March 1st, Ascension Church in Bitterne Park, Southampton, held a ‘Preparing for Lent Quiet day’. The aim of the day was to provide an opportunity for people to come and start to prepare for their Lentern journey. It provided a quiet contemplative space for prayer and reflection, as well as creative resources for those who wished to use them. Soup was provided to go along side packed lunches bought by the participants.
Jackie Cooper writes, “The theme of the day was ‘The Wilderness’. We started the day with Morning Prayer and moved into a reflective time of a desert soundscape and a desert poem before starting our first period of silence. Participants were able to choose to do a desert collage with sandpaper, a Lent Bag activity to collate and use during lent or to use other reading materials, reflective suggestions to help guide their prayers and thoughts. We then came back together for a midday prayer before enjoying lunch together. A musical reflection led us into our afternoon quiet session before gathering at the end to bring our day to a close with sharing and a concluding prayer.
Some participants stayed all day whilst others joined us for what time they could. The day was appreciated by all who attended, reporting that it was good to ‘come away from the business of home’, ‘I wouldn’t allow myself this time if I was at home’, A restful place full of the sense of prayer’.”
St James’ Church, Bramley
St James’ Church in Bramley welcomed 31 children and 29 adults for a pancake party on Tuesday afternoon. It’s taken place at the church for the last 2 years. The children enjoyed art and crafts and pancake races along the path outside the church followed by lots of pancakes to eat!
Revd Mark Anderson said, “It’s a way for the church to reach out to the community, to build relationships with families in the village, to get to know them and invite them to other church events.”
The Parish of Four Saints, Bournemouth
Children and Families Minister Dave Griffiths writes, “Our annual pancake tea is a great way of serving our parish and bringing people together in the church building to mark the oncoming season of Lent. We had around 100 people of all ages come through from 2.30 to 4.30 and must’ve cooked up around 250 pancakes on three hobs! It’s a fun but rather sticky way to open the doors and welcome people on a Shrove Tuesday.”
