Could you pray for climate justice this Lent?
Lent is traditionally a time for repentance, a much-misunderstood word. The word often translated as repentance is metanoia – which more literally means a change of heart and mind. You may already have some personal ways you are planning to keep Lent, but prompted by Christian Aid’s national campaign (among others), the diocesan Eco Church Group is inviting all of us to pray and work for a change of heart and mind in caring for our planet and responding to the climate emergency.
This PDF includes a revised version of the Common Worship Litany for Ash Wednesday, with some additional petitions relating to the climate crisis, some links to two sets of intercessions with a focus on creation, and a meditative litany for use either in church or at home, based on some verses from Psalm 104. All are offered to help you pray this Lent.
And what else can you do? Perhaps it’s a time your church can make more progress towards becoming an Eco-Church, or moving from a bronze to silver award. Perhaps it’s a time when you can make a change to your lifestyle that enables you leave a lighter footprint on the earth. But for all of us it could be a time to pray, each day, that God’s will can be done for and on the earth, as it is in heaven.
Christian Aid and other church-linked charities are organising a 10 day Lenten Vigil for Climate Justice. Read more about the campaign here and download resources for a 1 hour vigil at home here.
If you plan to join the vigil, especially if you’re travelling to London, or holding an event in your church, please let the diocesan communications team know.
