Lent 2024 at Belfast Cathedral
Lent 2024 at Belfast Cathedral
This year, we are marking the penitential season of Lent in a number of ways, which we hope will allow many people to share with us.
Running through the six weeks of Lent, there will be Cathedral Morning Prayers held in the beautiful Chapel of the Holy Spirit, each day from Tuesday to Friday, from 8.30-8.50am. Through a simple service of readings and prayer, we will following two continuous sets of readings. From the Old Testament we will prepare for the events of Holy Week through the story of God’s dealing with the Children of Israel, from the birth of Moses to the Passover escape to the Promised Land, as told in the first chapters of Exodus. And from John’s Gospel we shall read of key events in Jesus’ three year ministry, leading up to Palm Sunday.
Please join us if you are working in Belfast or have other reason to be in the city centre, or can make the journey in. Otherwise we hope that the table of readings and Lent Order of Service below will allow you to join in prayer at home, either at the same time, or at a time of your own choosing.
And on Wednesdays through Lent we shall share in our series “Faith in the City”.
Starting at 1pm each week in the Chapel of Unity, we shall consider six different cities described in the Old and New Testaments, and ponder what the biblical account of that place has to teach us about our faith in the modern world, and in our own city. Following the introduction to the Communion Service, and then the reflection given each week by a different speaker, there will be a short time for to share some questions together. This is then followed by the fellowship of Holy Communion. We will aim to be finished by 1.45pm to allow those working to get back, and for those staying, some further conversation over a cup of coffee or tea.
Once again, if you are not able to join us, do please read the passages and share with us in thought and prayer.
Our mid week “city breaks” will take us to:
February
- Wed 21st Babel Genesis 11:1-9 – The Dean
- Wed 28th Jericho Joshua 21:1-15, 6:15-18 & 20-21 – Rev Dr Ron Elsdon
March
- Wed 6th Ninevah Jonah 3:1-4:2 – Rev Janice Elsdon
- Wed 13th Damascus Acts 9:1-2 & 10-22 – Canon Raymond Fox
- Wed 20th Antioch Acts 11:19-30 – Rev Andrew Irvine, East Belfast Mission
(Holy Week)
- Wed 27th Jerusalem Luke 13:31-35 & 22:7-13 – Gillian McGaughey
Furthermore, at 5.30pm each Friday Evening, please join us for “Choral Evensong for a Lent Evening”. With Psalms, Settings and Anthems specially chosen for Lent, allow the beauty and pathos of evensong sung by the Choir of Belfast Cathedral to speak to your soul through music and the spoken word.
Please also join us, if you can, for Lunchtime Prayers in the Cathedral at 1.00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. At 1pm on Fridays there is the regular Service of Prayers for Healing, organised by the Church’s Ministry of Healing and held in the Cathedral Hall.
And for a more practical element to our Lent practice, we have re-instated the Cathedral Foodbank Collections. Please bring items of dried or non-perishable foodstuffs to the cathedral Foodbank collection point next to the Baptistery.
Whichever of these options appeals, this Lent please do allow yourself some time with God, to grow closer to his way and more attentive to his call, and all in preparation for this year’s Holy Week at Belfast Cathedral.
For Holy Week services and events, please see separate posting.