About the Lent Blog
Thanks to the great response we had to last year’s Lent blog, we thought we would run it again this year. Each week during Lent 09 a different author will be offering a posting to help us reflect on the meaning of Lent. The posts will begin on Ash Wednesday and continue every subsequent Monday until Easter. Here’s a bit more info about this year’s contributors:
Cliff Smith so enjoyed being 14 he has now done it four times. Having wasted twenty lucrative years in computer programming he is now doing his dream (literally) job as a housing officer and wondering – how did that happen? Cliff’s top tip: Don’t try to put God in a box.
Mark Roques is a great storyteller who has spent many years in education. For eleven years he taught Philosophy & Religious Studies at Prior Park College where he developed a unique Christian worldview course that combined film, music, story-telling and subversive role plays. He is passionate about salt-water crocodiles, philosophy and football. He is a tutor for the West Yorkshire School of Christian Studies. He lives in Leeds with his wife Anne, daughter Hannah and son Emile. See more of what Rocky gets up to on his website
Jon Birch is a musician, illustrator and animator and the creative force behind the unfeasibly popular ASBOJesus blog. He lives in Bath with his wife Clare Birch, who is a part-time writer and full-time malcontent.
Carole Hawkins is still a mother of two despite recent resignation threats. She lives in Liverpool with her husband Phil and blogs regularly at holyfamoley as well as being a valued contributor to ASBOJesus and the Sanctuary blog.
Sonia Mainstone-Cotton is an early years specialist and consultant. A founder member of Sanctuary and the driving force behind our presence at Greenbelt, she lives in Bath with husband Iain and daughters Lily and Summer.
Su Bowman is a receptionist, counsellor and artist. Su writes: ‘I’ve found myself becoming more and more passionate about counselling. It’s been powerful for me to find the details and stories of life giving me new insight into my faith, and it’s reassuring to find my faith growing as a result of studying secular counselling. Am very much planning to find time to make art again. Tim and my friends are important to me, as is Sanctuary, FOTK and Iona.’
Dave Wiles is married to Donna and has three wonderful children who tolerate his ageing sense of humour remarkably well. He likes reading, travel, sleeping, walking and real ale – not necessarily in that order or all at once!
Dave is currently the CEO of Frontier Youth Trust. Over 30 years of on going direct youth and community work experience is his primary street cred – but he also has an MPhil on young people’s participation. Dave worked for the Children Society for 21 years in a wide range of roles having come into youth and community work following a turbulent adolescence. He describes his Churchmanship as ‘eclectic’.
Charlie Inskip is an RE specialist and currently juggles teaching in an international school in Bahrain with being new mum to baby Poppy and wife to fellow teacher Skip. A long time member of Sanctuary, her highly creative input has ranged from writing liturgies and prayers to embroidering a bra for a Greenbelt installation.
Posting Dates
Feb 25th (Ash Wednesday) – Cliff Smith ‘Seeing the Lion’
Monday March 2nd – Dave Wiles ‘Created to Create’
Monday March 9th – Carole Hawkins ‘Temptation’
Monday March 16th – Mark Roques ‘The Amazing Story of William Sleeman’
Monday March 23rd – Jon Birch -tbc
Monday March 30th – Su Bowman – tbc
Monday April 6th – Charlie Inskip – tbc
