Around Town: 2026 Lent Devotional, Prayer for Unity, 24/7 Week of Prayer

The church relations team at Union Gospel Mission has gone to a lot of work to gather reflections on Lent from a diverse body of leaders in the areas where they work – Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Victoria.

The daily readings in UGM’s 2026 Lent Devotional cover the whole season of Lent, from February 18 to April 4.

Sam Lee, Manager of Church Relations for UGM, says:

UGM is happy to share its fifth annual Lent Devotional. This year’s edition celebrates the diversity of the body of Christ in the Lower Mainland and Victoria with contributions from UGM staff, pastors and Christian leaders from different backgrounds.  This diversity is highlighted with contributions in several languages.

We hope that the devotional will help deepen your faith and draw you closer to Jesus as you journey through Lent with us.

The introduction to the devotional includes these thoughts from the UGM Church Relations team:

As we enter Lent in 2026, we step into a season woven with quiet grace – 40 days set aside to slow down, breathe deeply and open our hearts to God’s gentle work within us.

Lent is not meant to burden us, but to free us: to clear space for honesty, healing and renewed hope.

This devotional is an invitation to walk closely with Jesus, day by day. Through scripture, reflection and simple practices, may you discover again the God who meets us in the wilderness and leads us toward resurrection life.

Each day of Lent has a list of Bible passages and a reflection based off of one of the passages. We invite you to read the scripture passages listed and then read and reflect on the devotion written by a local Christian leader. Whether this season finds you weary, expectant, searching or grateful, may these pages accompany you with warmth, encouragement and peace.

May this Lent become a journey of remembering who you are, whose you are and how deeply you are loved.

Among the contributors to the devotional are:

• Matthew Johnson, Street Outreach (Anglican) Priest, Vancouver
• Kevin Her, Eikon Community Church, Surrey
• Archbishop Richard Smith, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver
• Jenna Fabiano, Willoughby Christian Reformed Church, Langley
• Daniel So, One Hope Community Church, Maple Ridge
• Richard Watson, Kerrisdale Presbyterian Church, Vancouver
• Elita Friesen, The Way Church, Vancouver, North Vancouver
• Fari Ghaem-Maghami, Coastal Church, Vancouver
• Dawn Humphries, Strathcona Vineyard Church, Vancouver
• and several UGM staff members, including UGM President Dean Kurpjuweit and Sam Lee himself.

I plan to post some of the entries during Lent, but in the meantime, go directly to the 2026 Lent Devotional, which is already online.

Prayer for Christian Unity

Several local churches hosted ecumenical gatherings during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which is celebrated around the world from January 18 – 25. I was again able to attend the event at the John Paul Centre, on the afternoon of January 21.

An article in The B.C. Catholic begins:

As candlelight spread across the John Paul II Pastoral Centre hall, the flames became a living symbol of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity event.

Christian leaders, clergy, Catholic staff and members of Vancouver’s many Christian churches gathered for an ecumenical prayer service entitled Light from Light for Light.

The gathering brought together representatives of different Christian traditions, with Archbishop Richard Smith present alongside Anglican Archbishop John Stephens to begin the lighting of the candles, the passing flames becoming a symbol of the unity the attendees were praying for.

Father Keghart Garabedian of St. Vartan Armenian Apostolic Church in Vancouver reflected on the challenge and necessity of unity in the Church, drawing on St. Paul’s words from Ephesians: “There is one body and one Spirit.” He acknowledged that unity is difficult to achieve, yet essential to Christian witness in a fragmented world.

I very much appreciate the welcoming approach of the Catholic church and other churches involved in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, though it would be good to see more participation than is currently the case. 

Fortunately, a number of other networks and movements – Mission Fest and Alpha Canada for example – also draw Christians from a wide range of denominations together. One such gathering is the upcoming week-long prayer gathering.

24/7 Worship Night / Prayer Room

Centre Church in downtown Vancouver will host a week of prayer February 17 – 24:

We will launch our week of 24/7 prayer with a Worship Night on February 17th in the auditorium and continue praying through worship each night in the Gallery.

Find the full schedule and details below.

Worship Schedule
February 17th | 7-9PM | Auditorium
February 18th | 7-9PM | The Gallery
February 19th | 7-9PM | The Gallery
February 20th | 7-9PM | The Gallery
February 21st | 7-9PM | The Gallery
February 22nd | 7-9PM | The Gallery
February 23rd | 7-9PM | The Gallery
February 24th | 7-9PM | The Gallery

For more information on 24/7 Prayer click here.

An online sign-up sheet also encourages people to sign up, hour by hour from midnight to 11 pm every day between the 18th and 24th.

The international 24-7 Prayer Movement is ‘an international, interdenominational movement of prayer, mission and justice; a non-stop prayer meeting that has continued for every minute of this century so far, in over half the countries on Earth.” There are, according to the site, people praying at 25,000 prayer rooms in 78 nations. Go here for 24-7 Prayer Canada.

Events are listed below, but there is also an Events page and a Jobs page on the Church for Vancouver site.