Dust + Glory
A Lent Journey of faith, failure and forgiveness

Author Emma Ineson
Publisher CHP
Single copy – £1.99   Pack of 10 – £17.50    Pack of 50 – £75.00
Format pbk
ISBN 9781781404003

Dust + Glory
A Lent Journey for Children

Author Anon
Publisher CHP
Single copy – £1.50    Pack of 10 – £12.50    Pack of 50 – £55.00
Format pbk
ISBN 9781781404072

These two attractive pocket-sized booklets are the Church pf England’s thematic offering for a thoughtful and productive Lent. Many churches will wish to consider investing in bulk copies for their congregations, so that whole communities can focus similar prayers on the same day. The overall theme is human weakness or, as the Archbishops put it in their introduction, ‘how we can live well within the mess of everyday life ’ – striving to understand our frustrations and failings, learning from them and thereby growing closer to God.

The adult booklet is a much abbreviated version of Bishop Emma Ineson’s book, Failure – the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent book. It contains 40 daily reflections, grouped around weekly themes, including failure, sin and ultimately the saving actions of Jesus during Holy Week. Each reflection and prayer will only take a few moments to absorb, but hopefully they will provoke conversations and meditations at other times during each day.

I found the children’s booklet, which is based on appropriate activities rather than reflections, somewhat less convincing and even slightly old-fashioned. For example, the children are asked to ‘Make or draw a simple cross’, ‘Read or listen to Psalm 23’, ‘Read or listen to the story of Jonah.’ Judging by my grandchildren, they will probably ask Alexa to do some of these. But full marks to the Church of England for trying hard and not forgetting that children also need to experience the rhythms and the spirituality of the Lenten season.

Reviewed by ELIZABETH HOGG

Lent activities