In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book this year is 'Say Yes to Life' by Ruth Valerio (available from Amazon, Wordery and hive). St Francis Church is holding a book group to read the book together. There will be a daytime (Thursday Mornings 11am) and an evening (Monday evening 7.30pm) group, so pick whichever is best for you! In addition, each Friday I'll post a blog post with some information and thoughts on that weeks chapter so even if you can't make the group you can have a sense of reading it with others.

Here are some short extracts to see if the book might be for you:

Through these next six weeks of Lent, we are going to read Genesis 1 together and see how the themes of this opening chapter of the Bible weave their way through the biblical story and into our lives. We will use the Days of Creation to open our eyes to the world around us: to the people who live in it with their diversity, gifts and struggles; and to the other inhabitants who share our space and the environments within which we live, in all their wonder, beauty and fragility. Each chapter will look at one of the Days of Creation and will focus on the various aspects of the natural world that are created on that day. {pages xii-xiv} 

During the 40 days of Lent, Christians fast or give up certain things, and dedicate extra time – on our own and with others – to prepare ourselves for the events of Holy Week and Jesus’ death, which led ultimately, of course, to Easter Day and the victorious resurrection. Lent thus gives us an opportunity to reflect on our wrong-doing and its impact, and to consider what practices of resurrection hope we might then take on. {pages xiv}