Easter is the great celebration of new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For that reason, from the earliest days of the Church, Easter has also been a fitting time for baptisms. Baptism is one of the sacraments of the Church: a divinely given sign and pledge of new spiritual birth and belonging to God. Just as God’s people were marked out (by e.g. circumcision) in the Old Testament, Christ’s people today are marked by the outpouring of water. There

That was the question at the heart of a recent national survey conducted by A Passion for Life. When asked what feels absent from their lives, the top three answers (across both men and women) were purpose, freedom, and security. Among 18–24 year olds, acceptance also featured strongly. Those longings are not trivial. They are deeply human. And they are not new. They echo across generations and cultures. Beneath the busyness of daily life, beneath work, family pressures, an

The season of Lent has deep roots in Church history. In the early church, the forty days of Lent were particularly focussed on preparing new converts for baptism at Easter. Over time, Lent developed into a broader pattern of Christian living, marked by prayer, fasting, meditation on God’s word, repentance, and almsgiving – all the ordinary “stuff” of the Christian life! In that sense, Lent is not meant to be a special season of sacrificial living so much as an annual reminder

We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. - Psalm 78:4 According to Growing Young Disciples, the outsourcing of parenting, education, recreation, and spiritual formation – combined with the digitalization of the world – has led to a battle over the memory, identity, and formation of Gen Z (people aged 13-25), and even Gen Alpha (young teens and below). R