Lent - can someone please explain it to me?

[Webstermum]

I am a Christian but still have a lot to learn. I find in my Church poeple assume you know & it's not really easy to ask questions. I don't understand Lent. Can someone please explain what it is, when it is & what you're supposed to do. I've heard people speaking about giving things up for lent but what & when & why?

just, had no intention of raising hackles Only wanted to contribute positively!

I'm just not getting the hackles thing.

well thanks very much for all info but have just been told we don't 'do' lent because we're CofS - wtf is that all about???

I haven't any idea, not knowing anything about CofSc.
And just as you knew all about it, they don't 'do' it?

well I'm gonna do it anyway with a little help from my MN friends Hope you are ok DO, any news on DD & baby?

I grew up in the Kirk (in the 70s and 80s) and we certainly celebrated Lent.

I don't see a lot of difference to my experience then and now, in an evangelical parish (except for the former being 30 people and the latter 500).

When I lived overseas, the only Anglican parish was Anglo Catholic and Lent was a very depressing time. They stripped the altar and covered everything in purple cloths. Liturgy reverted to 1662. The little vibrancy we had in music disappeared.

In our evangelical parish, we keep on trucking. We do special devotionals for Lent in our homegroups, but really don't need to in our usual services as we are already bible focussed. Lent for us is an extra special focus on mission - even more than we usually do. As a congregation, we do usually have a group giving up, with the money saved going to our Lent mission partner.

It really depends. It's all about if you follow a 'church calendar' really. We acknowledge Easter and Christmas, but we don't follow a church year, so to speak, so we don't 'do Lent' (and yes, I think there is a large element of it being too Roman Catholic.)