LongLent preparing for a DelayedEaster of Re-Membrance?

A week or so back, I read an article which was suggesting that after Easter we would still experience an indefinite awaiting time until we would be able to re-assemble (re-member is a term I'd commend) as churches and that such an occasion would be a kind of second Easter. Which makes the time now a kind of second Lent. So I'm suggesting we kind of approach it that way a bit. I'm not saying don't celebrate Easter, just turn the volume down on it a bit and inject some sombre into the interim: some sombre for those struggling to save life, those struggling to continue breathing, those mourning early deaths and the many struggling to adapt to isolation and distrupted lives. By all means continue to remember resurrection and the hope it gives, celebrate it but then Lent was ever oriented to Easter (just read the liturgical preface to the season again).

To be clear, I'm not suggesting a Lent do-over, rather that we have a Lenten thread to the coming weeks and months until Re-Membering can take place.

So what could this look like? Well, I'm considering each Wednesday tracing a cross on my hand with soil**, as a sign harking to the ash cross of Ash Wednesday but with a nod towards the idea of humility -humus or soil being the etymological root of 'humility'. It seems appropriate to recall still our frailty in times such as this. I'm also going to be thinking about how best to celebrate an Easterish weekend at the end of the crisis. What kind of liturgies would be appropriate? What kinds of themes would be best to highlight or bring to it? Should there be a place for lament? (working answer: yes).

 And are there disciplines that are appropriate to this LongLenten time? I'm thinking that perhaps a discipline of reading the resurrection texts seriously and closely against the background of the things we know continue to characterise these times -as mentioned in the first paragraph. Asking what such hope means for people caught most sharply in the jaws of the crisis? What it means to be not just a hearer of the word of the hope of new life but a doer of the hope of new life?

 #LongLent #DelayedEaster

  Endnotes
*"Brothers and sisters in Christ, since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord’s passion and resurrection and prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting. By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord..." See here. See also here.

**I'm considering a simple form of words to go with this action. Currently considering an adaptation of the words with ashing. So: "I remember that I am dust, and to dust I shall return, in sure and certain hope of rising to eternal life in Christ Jesus our risen Lord." In that way capturing a sober yet hopeful mood. Or perhaps "I remember that I am dust and to dust shall I return, who will deliver us from this body of death? -Thanks be to God -through our Lord Jesus Christ" or even "... I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me: the life I live in the body I live through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me" (see Gal.2:20)