Faith

Christians are often spoken of as the Body of Christ.  In other words, each person has particular skills and gifts which contribute to make the whole body work in a way that is coordinated and effective.  Some also see it as the different Christian traditions working together towards the same aim.  Sadly, on both counts, we so often fail but in our County, how is Christ's body being made 'incarnate' today? Throughout the BBC Radio Kent Lent Series you can hear from five people who tell their stories.

The five programmes cover:

• The Head
• The Feet
• The Hands
• The Heart
• The Voice

Each week as soon after the broadcast as possible, audio from the BBC Radio Kent Lent Series will be added to this page. Also, accompanying notes  relating to each week's broadcast from the series will be included.

Passion of Christ

In preparing the series, many people have mentioned to us the passage from the Bible to be found in the Letter to the Romans 12:1-8.  It is well worth re-reading.  Others have mentioned the famous prayer by St Theresa of Avila and you may like to read it now, combined here by Australians, Phil and Dan McCredden, into a reflection which also includes words of their own and words of the 20th century martyr, Archbishop Oscar Romero. 

Christ has no Body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which he looks
Compassion on the world
Yours are the feet with which he walks
To do good
Yours are the hands with which he blesses
All the world.
Yours are the hands
Yours are the feet
Yours are the eyes
You are his body
Planning in the Kingdom
It helps, now and then, to step back
And take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts
It is even beyond our vision.
Lord, we know in whom we believe
We accomplish in our lifetime
Only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise
that is God's work
Nothing we do is complete,
which is another way of saying that the
Kingdom always lies beyond us.
Lord, we know in whom we believe
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith
No confession brings perfection
No pastoral visit being wholeness
No programme accomplishes the Church's mission
No set of goals and objectives includes everything
Lord, we know in whom we believe
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted
Knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
Lord we know in whom we believe
We cannot do everything
And there is a sense of liberation in realizing that
This enables us to do something,
And to do it very well
It may be incomplete
But it is a beginning,
A step along the way, an opportunity for the
Lords grace to enter and do the rest.
Lord we know in whom we believe
We may never see the end results,
But that is the difference between
The master builder and the worker.
We are workers,
Not master builders,
Ministers,
Not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future
Not our own.
(Oscar Romero)

Lord, we trust in you
To eternally renew our belief in you
In ourselves and in each other
In this is our joy. Amen
Yours are the hands
Yours are the feet
Yours are the eyes
You are his body.
Christ has no Body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which he looks
Compassion on this world
Christ has no Body but yours.