A Prayer Page
Prayer is at the centre of our worship.
Together we express our hopes for the world and for wisdom among our leaders.
We support our community of Leamington, praying for the homeless, for children, and for anyone in need.
We pray together for anyone known to us.
‘The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined.’ (Isaiah 9:2)
It seems there is light at the end of the tunnel at last, with the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine (or many vaccines, take your pick). It’s a tribute to human ingenuity in science, technology, logistics and finance, and we have reason to be very thankful.
And light at the end of the tunnel is so welcome! Not many people have enjoyed this last year. Although I’ve suffered no personal or material loss, I have to say I’ve found it unremittingly bleak and negative, like living through a dystopian science fiction film. I can’t find any consolation of the ‘it’s lovely to hear the birds sing’ kind. I just see untold harms, many of which are not even apparent yet.
But perhaps we have shared a glimpse, for a rare moment in our lives, of a something experienced vividly by many people throughout history, and many people living in the world today. Now we know a little more of what it means to dwell in the land of the shadow of death.
As the church year moves from Advent into Christmas, we live out the symbolism of moving from darkness to light. Advent is a time for longing and waiting and hoping. It’s as we sit in the darkness with our feelings of anxiety, powerlessness, anger and grief that we invest our hopes in the arrival of Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem. And with his birth, we look beyond the end of the tunnel, with much broader horizons. Christmas gives us hope not just of relief from the miseries of 2020, but for an end to all sorrow, all suffering, all fear, even an end to death itself, through the coming of the one who is the light of the whole world.
‘Fear not, for I bring you
good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a
Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.’ (Luke 2: 10-11)
Paul Tennyson
The Prayer Book
The Prayer Book is found during the week in the community room. Anyone who wishes writes requests for prayer at our Sunday service. This includes visitors and members of any group using the church.
Our prayer chain
Anyone who needs the prayers of others can send a request by email.
The request is then circulated throughout the prayer chain of some 40 people.
If you wish your name to be added to the prayer chain so that you can pray for others, please send a message.
In times of disaster
When people are likely to be seriously affected by exceptional events locally, nationally or in the world, a prominently-displayed A-board will announce the opening of the church for prayer.
Dear Lord
So you’ve
brought us to another turning point!
We’re in charge of our own destiny because the restrictions have been lifted and we can’t hide under the advice of our circuit any more.
It isn’t as if Covid has gone away, but then most of the other churches are singing your glory again, so why shouldn’t we?
We’ve been
careful, Lord, and we asked for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and we think we
got it.
So
just for the moment we must pray for ourselves and for the way forward we are
taking now and in the future.
And we also
pray for our leaders who we are told, took a gamble.
Maybe
they were guided by the Holy Spirit too.
Tony Parkinson