Lent this year comes in the midst of a lot of exciting changes: we welcomed a new church administrator, Barbara Miller; commissioned a new vestry made up of six X chromosomes, and one Y chromosome; and under Rachael Carpentier's skillful leading, the choir is not only making wonderful new music, but is also out growing their space!

The arrival of Lent, coinciding with this time of entering into transition, invites us to experience an aspect of the Lenten journey that the Church often overlooks: the corporate aspect. Lent was not intended to be solely a time of individual prayer, reflection, repentance and discernment. It was also to be a time when the whole body, the congregation, did this self-reflection together in order to discern where they collectively might need some course correction, some clearer self-understanding. The confession in the Book of Common Prayer that we use on most Sunday’s is a corporate confession. The "we" is not limited to a bunch of individuals gathered together praying this, but rather it also includes the idea of a congregation recognizing and confessing their common straying from God’s best. (Try reading this confession with this corporate focus.)

Some Lenten questions to ponder, both individually an as a congregation:

1. What do I/we need to take on this Lent to strengthen my/our spiritual journey?
2. What do I/we need to do without this Lent in order to increase my/our spiritual focus?

I read somewhere that the key question is not whether we will keep Lent, but rather, will we lose Lent? (lose its benefits) This profound question challenges us to think seriously about how we will choose to observe Lent this year, in order not to lose it. A connected Lenten insight is this: At the conclusion of Lent each of us, collectively as well as individually, will either be a little more like the world, or a little more like Christ. We’ll either be a bit more conformed to the world, or a bit more transformed by the Spirit.

Let’s "do" Lent together this year.

-The Rev. Gay Blundell