United Reformed Church members are being invited to take part in an exciting new initiative for Lent.

The church’s “Commitment for Life” programme, which supports programmes in Bangladesh, Jamaica, Israel and the  Palestinian Territories and Zimbabwe, has created  “Counting the Cost” – a web-based course for the season of Lent written by Helen Garton and Sally Whitehead.

The resource consists of Bible readings, reflections, prayers and background information about the development work supported by the church, and can be used as part of group or private study. Participants are asked to respond by giving a small donation to the Commitment for Life programme starting at 1p a day, and rising by a penny for each day of Lent – £8.20 in total.

This is the first time the church has created a resource specifically for Lent, which runs from 17 February to 3 April this year.

Commitment for Life coordinator Linda Mead said: “This is something different – we’ve never tried anything like it before. We hope that people will gain spiritually from it, as well as being able to put their faith into action by supporting the church’s work overseas.”

Falling exchange rates, combined with the belt-tightening brought by the recession, mean that Commitment for Life programmes need more support than ever, she added: “Although people are still being very generous, the money is not going as far as it was a year ago, and the need in our partner countries is great.”

The course will be available from Ash Wednesday at www.cforl.org.uk. If you would like to receive an email reminder to log onto the page at the start of Lent, send your email address to gill.hillman@urc.org.uk