Generous Giving Adviser Joshua Townson, who wrote some of this year's Come and See discussion questions, spoke to BBC Radio's Phil Mercer this weekend about the meaning of Lent and the goal of Come and See.
Listen on Soundcloud or read below.
Phil Mercer
The season of Lent began last week. It's a period of abstinence and prayer, marking the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. Some people give up meat or treats like chocolate. Not sure I'd be able to do that the best of times. There's help and support available. In particular, the Lent Come and See website is back for another year. Joshua Townson is Generous Giving Adviser for the diocese and joins me now this morning. Let's get personal about this. What does Lent mean to you?
Joshua Townson
Good morning. Thanks very much for having me this morning. What does Lent mean to me?
As part of the Christian year, we tend to do several, actually, of these seasons of preparing ourselves for the major feasts. Obviously, we're preparing ourselves for Easter at this time. This year, particularly, Lent has meant for me bit of self-reflection and thinking about the choices that I make in my life, particularly with these sort of seasons of penitence, we call them, technically, we're asked to think about how we take the bad with the good, how we live our lives. Lives are full of up and down. And for me, this time of year, and particularly this season of Lent, is about reflecting on how I take the downs with the ups and how I sort of shape my life around the upcoming season of Easter.
Phil
Is it a difficult time for some Christians, and is that the point is it supposed to be?
Joshua
Difficult may not be the right word to use. It certainly asks us to challenge us a little bit. It asks us to put aside something or to take up something which takes us out of our comfort zone a little bit as part of our faith, and our attempts to respond to the faith that we have received and to the season of joy that we are being called to in Easter.
Phil
You've been working on the Lent Come and See course. What is that and how can it help?
Joshua
So, Come and See is a series of resources. We've been producing it as a diocese for several years now. Over 2025, we had 3,000 people across our diocese engage with these resources. And they involve several things. So they involve weekly videos from Bishop Steven, the Bishop of Oxford, and of course, this year is his last year as bishop.
They also involve daily reflections, being emailed with which you can listen to, where you can read with a Bible passage and a very short reflection. And then weekly group sessions, which you can either experience in church or in small group settings, which reflect a bit more on themes and aim to develop people's understanding of Christianity a bit more. And particularly, it's supposed to be accessible to all people. So with no understanding of Christianity at all, or those that have been lifelong Christians.
Phil
How much of these all linked together? Or the opposite? Are they weekly topics you can pick up at any point?
Joshua
So this year we have a focus on the Eucharist, one of the main services of Christianity, which some people call it Holy Communion.
It is a celebration of a special meal, a symbolic meal, a religious meal that Christians typically will share on a Sunday morning. And certainly the resources, particularly the group resources, can be picked up at any time and used at any time. We are at the end of of the first week, but certainly people who have not joined yet are very welcome to join and they won't lose out by not having started until now. And then the group resources can be used, as I say, any time through the year. They are more about reflecting and helping us to grow and giving us that challenge that I mentioned earlier in terms of how do we respond to faith.
Phil
What are you hoping will come out of this and who's it for? Is it for those who are heavily involved and committed to Lent every year? Or maybe is it for those who are trying to get around it for the first time?
Joshua
So I would like to say that it's available to both, particularly it's designed to welcome those who are relatively new to the idea. it is accessible to those who are of a very strong faith, absolutely, but it's supposed to be, or it's designed to be, accessible to those that perhaps are interested in Christianity and want to know a bit more. They certainly, or they may never have given up anything for Lent before, they may even not know what Lent is.
But we want to be able to say, actually, this is what it's all about. This is a bit of information, and this is what it could mean for you.
And particularly, as I say, to say actually, it is a bit of a season of challenge, but it's a season of challenge which helps to develop us and it gives us, it gives our lives meaning beyond the ordinary. And that's why we have these seasons through the year, and particularly why we have, of course, our main season of Easter as the celebration that we're building up to.
And so I think the resources are designed to say to those who perhaps don't know Christianity that well, as well as those that do know very well, that there is something for you to discover in the resources that we've prepared for you.
Phil
I love the definition of the season of challenge. Joshua Townson, Generous Giving Adviser for the diocese. Many thanks for telling us more about the Lent Come and See Course. We wish you the best.