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.
June: A Prayer for the Methodist Conference
The Methodist Conference meets at the end of June. While it sometimes seems remote from our local church it will be making decisions on important issues which will affect us, for example, same sex marriage and climate change. We hold in our prayers all those who will participate in the Conference, and especially those who will be ordained.
Lord of all creation
We praise you for the richness in diversity we find both in the environment we inhabit and among the people we meet.
Grant us the imagination to see the world as you would have it
Not
to take our precious planet for granted But
take time to care for the environment.
Help us to see each person as someone made in your
image
To nurture mutual respect for those who seem different.
We pray for the Methodist Conference: Grant wisdom to those who will take part And your especial blessing to those who will be ordained.
Through Jesus who shows us the way in all things
Amen
Trevor Pethick