Monday 19 December 2016

The Archbishop's Lenten Course - 2017

REFLECTING, PRAYING AND ACTING TOGETHER, a series of Bible studies for Lent commissioned by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba is now available online for downloading and printing by parishes and Dioceses.

The course comprises daily readings and six weekly teachings centred on weekly themes for personal and/or communal prayer and meditation. Excerpts from the Archbishop's preface:

...[T]his is an invitation to all of us as members of ACSA, to our friends, whether people of faith or of none, and especially to our ecumenical friends, to reflect prayerfully not only on our vison and mission statement (“Anglicans ACT”), but on God’s vision for the world. In these Bible teachings we are given an opportunity to put flesh on what I would call the eternal ideals enshrined in the Bible or in our dogma. In other words, it is an invitation to us collectively to get into the mind and heart of the incarnate Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, and to see how we as his followers can make him real by understanding his ways...

In these teachings, examples of society's failings such as inequality, corruption, unemployment, poverty and environmental degradation are highlighted. We rightly start with daily readings, for as Anglicans we need to begin with Scripture in order to apply our hearts and minds to our daily challenges, to read the mind of Christ in our readings and then to be deepened in our journey...

As I offer these Lenten studies to all of you, I hope you will be as excited as I am with this journey of Reflecting, Praying and Acting Together. I am grateful to the team of people who have prayed, reflected and acted on the challenge that I placed before them to help me construct these Bible studies and to those who have ably read and edited them.


Click here to download a PDF file (34 pages)

PDF file updated to version 7 on December 20, 2016.

5 comments:

  1. Thank you, this looks really good! May I ask two questions?

    1) is this booklet also available in a printed form? From where could it be ordered? (even in the age of technology, please remember that in some of the more rural parishes "download from the internet" for many is not an option!)

    2) if not, would it be permissible to make local copies/printouts available (at production cost or paid for by the parish) to those co-workers, who are interested in working with this material? Since I saw no copyright notice in the pdf clarifying the situation, I thought let me ask your permission to do so.

    Thanks, "Moruti" Lutz
    (Tlhatlaganya Parish)

    PS: I heard about 5 Feb to be observed as "Education Sunday". Is ACSA planning to provide any special resources for the day (prayers, readings, liturgy, anything)?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Province does not have the resources to print and distribute the booklet but parishes and dioceses are encouraged to use the PDF and print or photocopy it locally.

    Education Sunday: ABESA is working on recommended resources.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The promised resource document for Education Sunday from ABESA can be found here:
      http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2017/01/collect-and-prayer-resource-for.html

      Delete
    2. Thank you, your Grace, for both the Lenten Course, as well as the resources for Education Sunday.
      I will distribute this across our (AYSA) network and encourage especially young people to fully participate.
      Warm blessings as we prepare for Lent.
      Tony Lawrence

      Delete

Thanks for your feedback! Note that we do not normally publish your Anonymous comments here. Rather comment on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/anglicanmediasa/