As someone deeply committed to our strategic planning and our programme

for growth, there is something I recognise all too well. Without a move of God’s

Spirit in this Diocese it will go nowhere. We can do all in our power to

encourage a climate for growth, to foster and to promote it, but in the end we

are reliant on God.

In that graphic scene described in Ezekiel chapter 37 we hear how the prophet

was taken into a valley filled with dry and dusty bones and told to speak to

them in God’s name. To his amazement the scattered bones began to gather

together - forming skeletons, developing flesh and sinews, tissues and skin.

There right in front of Ezekiel a vast army was formed from those bones of the

people of God. Except they were still lying in the dust – dead or as good as!

God needed to breathe fresh life into them.

Across the parishes and deaneries of the Diocese, through our chaplaincies,

councils, boards and synods we have made plans for growth - and we believe

these have been prompted and led by the Spirit of God. We have been

encouraged by what has been emerging – especially whenever it feels like dry

and dusty bones have been given flesh and sinew. But as for Ezekiel in his

day, God is teaching us to recognise this is his work and to be more conscious

of our dependence on his activity. For he is the One who gives growth, his is

the breath which animates our hopes and plans, and his is the energy we want

to see increasingly released in people’s lives across our churches and

communities.

I hear the Spirit saying this to us in the proposal that has emerged through our

deanery leadership that we should make Lent 2010 a time marked out by

prayer and fasting. As Richard Foster says prayer is life creating and life

changing - it takes us onto the frontier of spiritual life. Prayer, as Bishop Mike

wrote last year in the Cycle of Prayer, is the lifeblood of our relationship with

God and that holds for us both personally and corporately. We are to seek

God in prayer together and also in private, through listening as well as

petitioning. Prayer keeps us ever mindful of what God has done and is doing

now and increases our trust and obedience to Jesus Christ.

Fasting - traditionally going without food in order to focus our attentiveness to

God - is a spiritual discipline which underlines the seriousness of our devotion

and discipleship. It is a practice which builds spiritual strength and stamina, yet

it is one which has largely been neglected by us as the body of Christ.

The message coming from our deanery leaders is that if we truly want to see

the energy of the whole people of God released in this Diocese then prayer

and fasting ought to be at the top of our shared agenda for discipleship this

Lent. Bishop Mike and I very much hope you will join with us in responding to

this call.