As we move through Lent towards Easter, is life starting to feel more hopeful, or are we still in the depths?

  

‘With all my heart,’ Bishop Steven Croft writes in his new book Comfortable Words, ‘I want to say to you: have the courage in this time to go deeper into God and deeper into your faith and draw on the great reservoirs of courage God gives to people in these seasons.’ Originally written and delivered as a series of podcasts for the Diocese of Oxford last autumn, and now published at the anniversary of the start of the first lockdown, this book explores Isaiah 40-55 and the message of comfort the songs of the prophet bring for each of us and our world at this time.

Meanwhile, Ian Cowley's powerful new book The Contemplative Struggle tells the story of the battle against racism, injustice and poverty, drawing on his experience of living in his native South Africa during the apartheid era, and presents a picture of how contemplation and activism can come together in radical, life-changing discipleship.

And we're delighted to welcome Messy Discipleship, which brings academic analysis and practitioner wisdom to bear on a key question for today’s church. Edited by Messy Church founder Lucy Moore, it captures the latest thinking and learning from the Messy Church context and offers this, humbly and with recognition of how much there still is to learn, to the wider church. 



Finally, it's not too late to order your copies of The Easter Story, for your family or someone else's!

Wishing you Easter hope and restoration,
Olivia
Head of Content Creation and Living Faith Lead
@OliviaWBRF