PATTERN OF PRAYER
When Bishop John visited the vestry at St Catharine’s a few months ago, one of the things that came out of the meeting was the urgent need to pray. We all see the precarious situation our churches are in – the money we have in the bank is going down and we need to grow if we are to maintain our two churches in the ways that they run at the moment. We are getting older, sicker, etc. It would be so easy to throw ourselves into an exhausting frenzy of activity to try to fix what we see is the problem. However, if we do not do the things that God is calling us to do, such activity would be wasted and we could become discouraged (“unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain” – Psalm 127:1).
Therefore, we are offering the following pattern to our prayers. This is to encourage us in prayer together or alone, and to encourage everyone to pray for each other. Once a week it is in person, twice on Zoom, and the other times are for us to do at home (with resources for you to follow if you wish). So prayer is offered in the pattern below:
Sunday – our Sunday services in church
Monday, Friday & Saturday – prayer at home at a time of your choosing
Tuesday – Morning prayer on Zoom at 9.30am
Wednesday – Morning prayer at 9.30am at the church hosting the midweek service.
Morning prayer on Zoom will follow the SEC’s service of Morning Prayer available online here along with the other daily office of Evening Prayer you are also welcome to use.
If you’d like a particular structure for your prayers, I can offer a copy of the green, shortened version of the SEC morning prayer (also available to download here). If you’d like readings to follow each day, I will post the lectionary readings on our website for you to follow each week. Please e-mail Willie (or use the contact form on this website) to get the Zoom link for the services of Morning Prayer on Tuesday and Thursday.