Revd Bennett Spong leads both Morning and Evening Prayer this week, in the season of Lent (marking the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert). Morning Prayer – Bennett reads a passage from Hebrews, Chapter 10, verses 1 to 18. This scripture considers our standing in God’s sight, Jesus’ pre-ordained life with us on earth, the significance of the cross and Jesus’ obedience – knowing his fate – and the new covenant to expiate our sins; “And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds’, he also adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”

We pray for the people of Ukraine and Russia and for world peace. We pray for wise decision-making and for the moral integrity of all world leaders in the face of evil – most especially this morning.

Photograph with permission from St Olav’s Kirke, The Norwegian Seaman’s Church, Albion Street, Rotherhithe, London SE16 7JB, circa 1926.