13/02/2025
The Church of England’s Lent theme for 2025 is Living Hope. In Lent we journey with Jesus on the difficult and thorny road that leads all the way to the cross on Good Friday – and beyond, to the transformation of Easter Day. Living Hope offers us the opportunity to deepen our hope in God and be part of what God is doing to bring hope in the world.
You can read more about Living Hope theme here, including the various printed resources that are available, such as our Living Hope Lent reflections booklets for adults and children. In this blog we’re looking at the various digital resources you can make use of.
Webinars
Our Digital Labs webinars are an ideal place to learn and ask questions. We have regular webinars covering topics like editing on AChurchNearYou.com and introducing the user-friendly graphic design tool Canva. Throughout Lent these will be tailored to making use of the Living Hope branding and resources.
We also have special webinars diving into specific topics:
Special Webinar: ‘Living Hope’ Resources for Lent and Easter. Catch up on this webinar to hear our digital and publishing teams introduce the Living Hope theme and resources, and answer your questions.
Special Webinar: Let’s create together on Canva. Our next special webinar will be a longer, more interactive session where we’ll walk through the Canva design journey together, using Living Hope branding to make something Easter-specific. With mics and cameras on you get a chance to share what you’re working on, as well as any questions you have.
Other future webinars will cover topics like how to use Facebook pages, an advanced session on Canva, and how to edit a video for your church’s social media or website.
Resources for churches available now
Logos and design guidelines: Logo packs for print and digital are available to download now. Our branding guidelines are designed to assist churches and organisations in making the most of the beautiful Living Hope branding. For example, you can use the colours and fonts listed to create a brand kit in Canva. Here’s a short tutorial on how to do that.
Downloadable resources including activity sheets for children, social media covers and templates, 'What's On' and 'Keep in Touch' flyer templates, poster templates, and PowerPoint templates are available from AChurchNearYou.com (login required). See below an example of how you can use a Living Hope social media template as part of an Instagram story.
Lent reflections content outline: A summary of the weekly themes that we will explore this Lent in the Everyday Faith app, for use by clergy and church staff when planning services and small group content.
Group resources: A plan for those looking to use the Living Hope Reflections with small groups, prayer groups or as a Lent course.
Where to start?
Deciding what content to create, when to schedule it and managing engagement can be really overwhelming and can sometimes feel like a burden. These resources are created to ease that burden and support you to be able to quickly add your information. Use whatever helps and inspires you – but keep your focus on your church’s priorities. What events do you have coming up? How do you want to be posting about them? What does your community need to hear to give them hope? What events or causes do you want to promote and which platforms do you want to share on?
To get started, consider what the #LivingHope theme means to you and your church and how you could explore it. Are there recent moments of hope from your community you would like to highlight? Or are there things you are collectively hoping for that you want to pray for and share about online as part of your #LivingHope? Perhaps there’s a building or fundraising project to look towards, or a particular group of people you’re trying to reach and support?
Interactive posts are a great way to build engagement and hear where your community is at. Try polls and prompts on social media, with questions like:
What are you hoping for this Lent and Easter?
Are you giving up or trying something new this Lent?
Where do you find #LivingHope today?
What do you need from our church this season?
Keep an eye on the Digital Labs blog for more ideas and support. We’ll be posting more about Lent and Easter, including more ideas for content you could be sharing on social media, and how you can get your A Church Near You page ready for Easter.
Get involved: Share your Lent and Easter stories
We love to share stories of how churches are getting creative with evangelism and discipleship using digital tools. Just like we did last Advent and Christmas, we’d love to share any stories of what you explored last Lent and Easter (or what you’re trying this year) and what you learned. Share your experience and inspire other churches! You can fill in this form here to share your story – we would love to feature any stories we hear on the Digital Labs blog.
We can’t wait to see what churches will be sharing this Lent and Easter. Remember you can also email us with any questions at [email protected].
- Joseph Hartropp, Digital Labs Officer
