Lenten Pastoral Letter, 2026

Dearest Friends in Christ,

Greetings and blessings to you and yours, midway through Lent. This penitential season is an opportunity for us to venture with Christ into the wilderness. Whatever “wilderness” is for each of us, it is within the providence of God, and he leads us there to test and humble us, to reveal our own hearts to us, to dispel our fantasies and cast out our demons, that we might learn to be sustained by his Word. His word and will must become our daily bread—this we learn in the wilderness. 

Precisely in the wilderness of our human neediness and frailty, God reveals his goodness and favour towards us. Jesus went before us, “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.” For our sake he fasted forty days and forty nights, and when tempted by the Devil he refused to turn stones into bread. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” He who was sustained in the wilderness by God’s word is himself the eternal Word; he who endured hunger in the wilderness is himself the Bread of Life provided to sustain us.

It is no accident that in mid-Lent we hear the story of Jesus feeding the multitude in the wilderness (we read from John 6 in both our daily and eucharistic lectionaries). Just as God provided manna for the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings, we are reminded of God’s gracious provision in the middle of our Lenten journey, in order that we might be strengthened and refreshed.

Yet what God provides is far more than manna from on high. For Christ points to himself as the true bread from heaven, his own flesh, which he gives for the life of the world. Ultimately, for our sake he willingly enters into the most desolate wilderness of his Cross and Passion, in order to give us the spiritual food of his most precious Body and Blood. This is the meaning of our Lord’s sacrifice for us on Good Friday, and it is the meaning of every Holy Communion. In the loving-kindness of Almighty God, barren wilderness becomes fruitful, suffering is transformed into glory, the Cross is revealed as the Tree of Life. God’s provision is beyond anything we can ask or imagine. Such is God’s love for us.

My hope and prayer is that you will indeed enter whole heartedly into the wilderness with Christ, and there find the abundance of God’s goodness and love. That it would be a means of grace to deepen your faith and repentance. That it would be for you a season not of gloom but of light, not of emptiness but fulness of joy. “O taste and see that the Lord is good,” says the Psalmist. May we receive what he gives, and so know the refreshment and renewal of soul which he promises and provides. Then, in the wilderness, shall we discover a kind of paradise of God.

This Lent there are many opportunities to pray and praise, to hear and meditate on God’s holy Word, to engage in Christian fellowship and mutual encouragement in the way of holiness. In addition to our usual 9 am Morning Prayer on Mondays through Fridays, there’s also 6 pm Evening Prayer on Wednesdays. There are five concurrent Bible studies in the parish at different times throughout the week—please speak to me if you would like to take part in one of them. Through Holy Week, we go through all four Gospel accounts of our Lord’s Passion. See our Holy Week and Easter schedule of services, and outline of special events, enclosed. I encourage you to consider your participation in our life of common prayer and worship as fully as you can.

As an essential part of your worship and spiritual devotion this season, please consider your giving to the Lord. I commend to your reading the update from our Stewardship Committee, and ask that you ponder what you can give over and above your regular offering at Easter.

Under the everlasting Mercy,

Benjamin+

The Fourth Sunday in Lent