An American Lent

Erin Clifford is a friend of Church of the Cross. She is the Director for the Fuller Center for Spiritual and Missional Formation and has led retreats in which Shannon Coelho, Paul Van Allen, and I have been privileged to participate. Erin is an Anglican priest, a gifted communicator, and has a contagious passion for justice and joy in the Lord.
 
Erin is also a board member for the Repentance Project – an organization that encourages racial healing by communicating the systemic legacies of slavery, building relationships, and creating opportunities—through formation, repentance, and repair—for a just future.
 
Central to the work of the Project is a daily, seven-week devotional called An American Lent. Peter has encouraged us to make this resource central to our devotional practice this Lenten season.
 
What is An American Lent? In a word, a journey through our nation’s history of slavery, segregation, and racism with the hope of healing. The hope is that daily prayer, reflection, and response around this issue would help us bear the fruit in keeping with repentance and become agents of healing across divisions and pain.
 
Here’s how the creators summarize the experience: “Each week in ‘An American Lent,’ we will encounter new perspectives as we journey from the slave trade through the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement to modern-day racial injustice. In the last week, Holy Week, we will navigate suffering, forgiveness, communion, and ultimately—resurrection. Each day, in the responses and prayers, we encourage you to participate afresh
in the Great Commission to be Christ’s hands and feet of reconciliation—starting in your own heart, and then in your family and community.”
 
There are three ways of getting the material: downloading the PDF, reading each day online, or receiving it as a daily email. Just click here.
 
Repenting alongside you,

Nick