Prayer Ministry at St Nicolas

Prayer is one of the greatest paradoxes in the Christian faith. In one breath it is hugely personal and private, the core of an intimate relationship with our own personal Father. In another it is corporate and the bedrock of our communal faith. Jesus himself speaks of times when ‘one or two are gathered there He is also’ as well as advising us, when praying, to go to our rooms and commune in private with our Father. The one thing we know for sure is that there is HUGE strength in the offering of prayer wherever and in whatever way it is formed and sent.

Our challenge as a church is to keep that practice alive and accessible to all of our community, and as you will know from the past newsletter, there are new initiatives here at St. Nicolas aimed at developing our prayer ministry.

On Saturday, 16 May we met in Church to share a Prayer Morning and it was so exciting to see the way that each of these initiatives is developing and moving forwards. Over the coming weeks the updated Prayer Chain commences and will be publicised both in and outside church. Also during June those who signed up to be Prayer Companions will receive the details of their groups and guidance to enable them to start whenever they wish. The provision of extra prayer support at services was very positively received with many offers to be involved. Neil Warwick is keen to be involved in starting this up as he has experience in developing this elsewhere and so we look forward to being able to provide this extra support later in the year.

The Prayer Walk planned for 6 September is now starting to take on form and looks as though it will be a fantastic event for the whole church to get involved in, starting with a 10.00 service followed by parish brunch to give fuel for the walkers! Following a commissioning the walk will start at St Nicolas and then follow a predetermined route, with regular pit stops planned, and back up vehicles available to allow everyone to join and leave as they feel able. The walk will end back at St Nicolas with prayers and celebration during which time the Parish Prayer Map will be blessed ready to be used each week in our intercessions over the coming year. Perhaps we could start prayers to be blessed with good weather now!  Doug Walrond is co-ordinating the Prayer Walk.  For more information please contact him at: doug@stnicolas.org.uk.

The success of this initiative will be made easier by the involvement of our Community Police Officer who has recently been linked with us through the national Adopt A Cop Scheme. As this scheme develops he will be a major link between us and our local Thames Valley police and we welcome him.

Finally, later in this newsletter you will see a prayer calendar for the month of June. It contains ideas week by week for us to include in our own personal prayers. It is hoped that this will develop over time to be linked with a revamp of our weekly intercessions and include Diocesan, local and national initiatives.
 

Pastoral Care Group