‘PUNCHY’ LENT TALKS AIM TO INSPIRE FRESH APPROACH
A question often asked in church circles at this time of year when many Christians are marking the 40-day period leading up to Easter is: What are you giving up for Lent?
Rev. Mark Kleiner, pastor of Christ Church Anglican, and Fr. Graham Hill, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic parish and outreach priest for St. Mary’s Catholic Church, asked themselves a different question. Their question was: Is Lent a good time to add something to your spiritual journey?
Kleiner and Hill became friends not so long ago and are learning about one another through the kinds of questions friends generally ask. It started with: What are you reading?
Both happened to be reading books with a Lenten theme. Hill was reading The Beatitudes by Presbyterian minister George Hunsinger and Kleiner was reading The Joy of the Gospel, a Lenten resource by Pope Francis. Initially, the two tossed around the idea of choosing a book and having both their parishes study it during Lent.
At the same time, the irony was not lost to them that in both cases, their reading material came from outside their denominational realm. That sparked the inspiration for a series of talks by various local denominational leaders regarding their personal favourite Lenten resource.
The result of their conversation is Lent Talks — Inspiration for the Journey, a presentation series in the weeks leading up to Easter. It is meant to be a call within Christianity to consider taking leads from other Christian denominations in terms of how Lent is observed.
“‘What are you giving up for Lent?’ is fine,” Kleiner says, “but what about taking something on board to make Lent more of a spiritual practice?”
Kleiner describes the series as “five punchy, powerful talks. We have no expectation for people to have read the books being discussed beforehand. Our presenters will focus on the best take away from their particular resource. If people are interested, they can always get the book afterward and read it themselves.”
Hill will be the first presenter. On Tuesday, March 7, he will discuss his favourite Lenten resource, George Hunsinger’s The Beatitudes.
“Hunsinger, a Presbyterian who calls himself a closet Anglican, brings together views from a variety of Christian writers, making it an ecumenical experience,” Hill says. “He examines the Lenten practices of various Christian denominations and addresses what about Lent unites us rather than what divides us.
“Hunsinger’s approach to The Beatitudes excites me. He says instead of Jesus being the person speaking about the blessings, we should consider that He is the blessing. The Beatitudes are the centre of the Sermon on the Mount, which is in turn the centre of Matthew’s gospel.”
Rev. Deb Walker, co-minister at Mayfair United Church, is the featured speaker on March 14. Walker has just returned from walking the Camino de Santiago, the legendary pilgrims’ route through Spain, and is expected to bring a unique perspective to her talk.
On March 21, Marie-Louise Ternier-Gommers, priest of All Saints Anglican Church in Watrous, will introduce The Joy of the Gospel by Pope Francis.
Pastor Jakob Palm from Holy Covenant Evangelical Orthodox Church is the speaker on March 28, and on April 4, Rev. Bill Blackmon from the Saskatoon Evangelical Ministers’ Fellowship will share the final presentation. For a more detailed schedule, follow Christ Church Anglican’s Facebook page.
The Tuesday evening events will take place at Christ Church Anglican at 515 28th Street West in Caswell Hill.
The gatherings will be held in the church basement. For Christ Church’s first 50 years, it was known as the Basement Church because that’s all there was to the church building. “For Lent, we’re going back to the basement,” Kleiner says, “because Lent is a time for getting back to basics.”
The evenings will begin at 7 p.m. with coffee as people gather.
“Then we’ll do some singing and I’ll take the Kermit the Frog role and welcome the group, help everyone get into the ecumenical space, and introduce the speakers who will present for about 45 minutes. We’ll have Q&A and a social time afterward.”
Kleiner feels that Lent has the potential for being an “unintentional time, a time of living unconsciously, on autopilot.” He hopes the Lent Talks will help make this sacred season more spiritually pertinent.
“The Talks are also an opportunity to make Lent an ecumenical pursuit,” he says. “Being with other Christians who come from radically different perspectives can help us approach Lent more consciously.”
Hill likes the fact that Lent Talks isn’t an initiative from “higher up.”
“It’s coming out of conversations between two people which gives it a more organic sense, and more ecumenical awareness.”
Being with other Christians who come from radically different perspectives can help us approach Lent more consciously.