Lent 2026 resources invite deepening practices for collective liberation, vulnerability, growth

Lent begins this year as movements of protection and protest have emerged in cities across the country in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Maine, and elsewhere.

Some of the learning arising from these movements “is that the more we have built community and laid the groundwork for collective action, the more capacity we will have to respond in moments of crisis,” said Sharon R. Fennema.

Fennema created this year’s UCC Racial Justice Ministries resource of small, daily practices for collective liberation for the 40 days of Lent.

“Working to build those skills and capacities for collective liberation over time helps us bring others into the movement when they are ready and the need is great. What better way to spend our Lenten season this year than deepening our practices of collective liberation so that we can live into our callings as followers of the One who knelt and washed his friends feet, reminding them to ‘love one another as I have loved you,’” Fennema said.   

The Practicing Collective Liberation Lent Resources invite people into doable and meaningful practices like, on day 20, helping a neighbor with a small task, or on day 11, putting the local immigration rights hotline number in your phone. Each daily practice suggestion is accompanied with Scripture.

‘Building a bigger we’

The inspiration for these practices of collective liberation throughout Lent came from bingo cards created and shared on social media by Minister Blyth Barnow – like Good Neighbor Bingo and Community Defense Bingo.

“Authoritarians seek to overwhelm us with despair, but I refuse to give in,” Barnow said. “I created these bingo cards as a simple tool to remind us of the agency, kindness, and connection that God calls us too. Isolation is a tool of the empire used to increase our fear, obedience, and vulnerability to violence. So in defiance I will hold tight to what I know: we were made for joy and connection. I will not shrink; instead, I will take it square by square in hopes of building a bigger ‘we’.”  

Fenema wove some of these ideas and practices together with Scripture and the consideration of Lent as a time for people to deepen spiritual practices.

“At a time in our country when so much time, money, and energy is being poured into increasing the divides between people and communities by creating ‘others’ who can be demonized and therefore deemed undesirable and disposable, our calling as Christians, as the Body of Christ demands that we nurture practices of interdependence, of connection, of collective liberation,” Fennema said.

Tested, Opened, Naked

The theme for this Lent’s Sermon Seeds and Worship Ways pulls from the origin story of Genesis 3 and how it explores the heart of “human brokenness in relationship with the divine, the human, and the remainder of the created order.”

“That story cautions that there are competing forces at work in the Creator’s world that rely upon deception, manipulation, and human arrogance. That story reveals how denial, conflict avoidance, and projection compound the brokenness. That story invites us to examine the realities of being tested, the challenges that arise from opened understanding, and the response to recognizing our own nakedness (vulnerability and transparency) before God and one another,” writes the Rev. Cheryl A. Lindsay, UCC minister for Worship and Theology.

Each week offers preparation resources and liturgies designed for use with the Revised Common Lectionary.

‘Shed what you’ve outgrown’

This Lent, The Stillspeaking Writers offer an invitation to “shed what you’ve outgrown” and grow in the Spirit with the daily reflections and prayers of Outgrow.

This 2026 Lenten Devotional is available in print or as a PDF download from The Pilgrim Press.

Lent begins with a divine demonstration of outgrown circumstances in the Revised Common Lectionary: the temptation of Jesus by the devil in Matthew 4.

“When Jesus was being tested in the wilderness,” contributor Ken Samuel observes, “he had already grown deeper than the superficial sources [of greatness and glory].”

Outgrow invites reflection on how such themes have been experienced in people’s lives: What depth has developed with increased insight and faith development, and what has been shed?

Weaving Palestinian liberation into worship

The UCC Movement for Palestinian Solidarity Liturgical Resources Team has created a selection of 2026 worship resources designed to aid congregations in incorporating themes of Palestinian liberation, solidarity, and justice into their Lenten worship services.

These include prayers for Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, as well as a Lenten communion liturgy.

 The MPS resources are available through Substack, and the group offers the invitation to use the resources “as is,” or to edit them for specific contexts and purposes.

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