Following on from our looking at Fellowship, what it means and could mean for us in our Church, over the next few months we are going to consider prayer. Although the Church is closed, we can still follow the teaching that Sue and Ken have prepared for us all. You will find the material on Prayer when you click on 'Holy Habits', the 4th heading in the left hand menu on this home page.

Sue, our minister, says:

'Dear Friends,

My earliest memory of prayer, was in the Roman Catholic mass, which I could say by heart by the time I was 6. The part of the mass that has stayed with me is the sound of the bells, rung as the priest lifted the bread and wine during communion, and the silence afterwards. In my 20s, I was taught the pattern of ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication), and in my 30s tried a set order for daily prayers. Neither really worked, so I found prayer easy to forget, until a new spiritual director gave me a book to read. It was about a form of contemplative prayer called centering prayer. I started to practice it immediately and have continued ever since.

I’m telling you this, because finding a method of prayer that works for us, can take years. And if you haven’t found it yet, you may feel as if you’re failing – God, the church, and other people – because you know prayer is important. I don’t think God expects us to beat ourselves up. So, I’d like to invite you to let go of all the pre-conceptions you have, and to start again. To see prayer as a way God reaches out to you, and you back to God, and to the world. To recognise that there are many ways in which we can pray, including many that don’t immediately look like prayer. And to open yourself to simply enjoy being with God (whether or not you can feel or sense God’s presence).'