With #Lent a week away, have you seen our
LENT 2026 REFLECTIONS
'Belonging in Christ: Offering a hope-filled vision of peace for all'
Reflect on themes of identity-based conflict, barriers to belonging and the resulting pressures on relationships.
https://ctbi.org.uk/resources/lent-2026-reflections/
Belonging in Christ:
Offering a hope-filled vision of peace for all
Introduction
Each year during Lent local ecumenical groups take time together to reflect on the progress of our work towards Christian unity and to challenge themselves to take action on those issues of shared concern. CTBI seeks to support and encourage this work through resources that connect with the major themes that have arisen in our British-Irish ecumenical dialogue.
This year we want to share some of the learning arising from our reflections on themes of identity-based conflict, barriers to belonging and the resulting pressures on relationships. The challenges we contemplate in this work are depressing and can feel overwhelming: political alienation, fragmentation, polarisation, isolation, hatred of the other and the experience and threat of violence.
Despite the scale and severity of these challenges, our conversations have been empowering and hope-filled. We find support in the solidarity with people who share the same concern for wounded communities and encounter hope in the gift of our shared faith, central to which is Christ’s promise of peace. In Scripture we are not only reminded of our responsibility to act, but we also find the inspiration for that action in the Word of God and the example of Christ.
At a time when the Church is also being impacted by the corrosive effects of polarising and divisive narratives that seek to define belonging in terms of rejection or exclusion of the other, it is vital that we share the learning from our work of Christian unity, including self-critical reflection on our faults and failings. This can be increasingly difficult as we encounter rising indifference and hostility, but in standing and speaking together we can support each other and increase the impact of our efforts.