Prayer
Prayer is one of the key tasks we set ourselves at St Mary's. We love to
talk to God and to listen to what God has to say to us individually and
together. Our communication with God is crucial to our finding direction as
individual Christians and as the church. More than that, talking with God
silently or using words grows our awareness that God is present.
On our Discipleship page we discuss the
challenge to, and how to, include prayer in our personal devotions. Here we
canvass how we organise and promote our corporate prayer life.
Opportunities to Pray Together
Monthly we gather in St Mary's for a Church prayer meeting on the first Wednesday 7:30-9pm. We pray for one another and we pray for our nation and the world but our focus is on the life and ministry of St Mary's. We use our monthly prayer calendar as fuel for our praying. As we pray we seek to listen to what the Spirit might be saying and will often pass on what we hear to the Church oversight or other appropriate people.
Our weekly home and other St Mary's groups are all encouraged to include fervent prayer as part of their meeting agenda, whatever that may be and where appropriate to pray for individuals within the group as they have particular need or concerns.
Before our Sunday morning service, those helping in the service are asked to gather together for 5-10 minutes at 9:15am in the back of St Mary's to pray specifically for the service and the "Breakout" groups which will meet during the service.
During our Sunday service formal or informal intercessions will be offered by a member or members of the congregation.
During or after the Sunday service, opportunity will be given for (and people rostered to offer) prayer for healing or personal intercession, possibly including anointing with oil.
Prayer will normally be offered during pastoral care or counselling meetings offered by the church staff or workers.
You are urged to let your requests for prayer to be made known by sending a message via the Contact form. This message will be seen by St Mary's Priest and Pastor and no one else, unless permission is granted by you to share the information given more widely. Alternatively, you may ring the Priest at St Mary's office or at one of his personal numbers if you have an urgent prayer request. Alternatively, Audrey and Rob Moonlight (235 7984) are recognised by the church as prayer contacts.
We are in the process of developing a prayer chain which will provide another avenue of prayer to be offered. Watch this space!