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Prayers And Letters For The Quarter from Reverend David Jenkins
Dear Friends,
Lovely, lovely people!” was how Terry Wogan described the folk at Aylesbury Methodist Church when he came as the invited after-dinner guest speaker on 2nd October.
I want to endorse his impression of the people of this Circuit. When we had our last Circuit Meeting in September the views being expressed were of such sensitivity and consideration as to be outstandingly special.
It is not only all the voluntary work we are involved in that matters; it’s the kind of people we are. The biggest witness to the work of Christ amongst us is the transformation of human beings into a loveliness that reflects something of the beauty of Christ.
We’re all realistic enough to know that we don’t always rise to such heights. There are times when we are anything but lovely people. We can even be spitefully petty, callously insensitive, cruelly thoughtless, selfishly blinkered and stubbornly intransigent.
Church people at their worst, feature prominently in novels and popular media stereotypes; and people outside the Church can find their own negative prejudices about us reinforced.
But look at what we can be - people in whom Christ is seen, people through whom the Spirit moves, people of resurrection. Through the inspiration of Christ and the power of the Spirit, let us live up to what we are at our best, and by our lives lead other people to Christ.
David Jenkins.A PRAYER FOR OUR CIRCUIT THIS QUARTER
During the winter’s darkness and cold,
During the Lenten journey to conflict and death,
Inspire us with the hope of new life,
Enthuse us with experience of resurrection.
Amen
CIRCUIT PRAYER DIARY
ON THE FOLLOWING DAY EACH MONTH PLEASE PRAY FOR:-
1. People caught up in natural disasters
2. Aylesbury Church, and community
3. People living in conflict situations
4. Cheddington Church and community
5. People known to us who are suffering from bereavement
6. The Church on Fairford Leys and community
7. Those who are ill and in hospital
8. North Marston Church and community
9. People exercising leadership in our local communities
10. Princes Risborough Church and community
11. The life of our nation and those who lead
12. Stewkley Church and community
13. The work of the United Nations
14. Stoke Hammond Church and community
15. Our Ministers and their families
16. Stoke Mandeville Church and community,
17. Those involved in Prison Ministry
18. Stone Church and community
19. Local schools
20. Swanbourne Church and community
21. Relationships with people of other faiths
22. Waddesdon Church and Community
23. Work among young people around the Circuit
24. Weedon Church and community
25. Vulnerable people known to us
26. Whitchurch Church and community
27. Action to protect the world’s environment
28. Wingrave Church and community
29. Relationships between Christians locally
30. Our Circuit Leadership Team
31. Our Chair of District - Rev. Peter Hancock
Some Previous Prayers
As we prepare for the future, help us to be deeply grateful for the past and to live fully in the present.
May we cherish the sacrament of the present moment, thankful for the gift of each new day, eager to serve you within it, enthusiastic to discover more of the wonder of your love.
Amen
We pray for the wider Methodist Church-
· For Alison Tomlin as she moves from being the Chair of District
· For Peter Hancock as he becomes the new District Chair
· For our neighbours in the Thame and Watlington Circuit and for the Circuits around them in considering their future.
We pray for our Circuit
· In decisions we make regarding a possible merger with churches in the Thame and Watlington Circuit
· For the people of Aylesbury in the use of their newly refurbished Church and Community Centre
· For the people of Wingrave, celebrating 150 years of witness and reflecting on future directions
May the wisdom of God guide us and the strength of God sustain us,
Amen.
Help us to build with care
· Buildings for people to meet with God
· Relationships with one another and our neighbours
· A pattern of life in which we encounter you
· An attitude towards life which enables us to be the people you call us to be
Amen
I thank you, Lord, for the food I enjoy each day, for its plentiful ness and variety. I pray for all who are hungry and malnourished because food is scarce and only of one kind.
Thank you for all I possess, for the usefulness, pleasure and enjoyment they each bring to me. I pray for those who struggle to make ends meet, whose homes are impoverished and whose choices are limited.
Thank you for my home, for its sturdiness and space, its warmth and attractiveness. I pray for those with no home of their own, no private space, no pleasant surroundings, those exposed to the decisions of others as to the permanency of where they are now.
Thank you for my friends, my family and all the love with which I have been surrounded from my first days. I pray for the lonely, the friendless, those with no caring relatives, those who do not know the meaning of love.
May my gratitude not make me feel guilty for what I have, but may I become more determined to see that others have the choice to enjoy all that I could so easily take for granted. May that determination lead to action on their behalf.
Amen.
Living God, there is far more about you and your activity than we will ever know; far more to thank you for than we will ever realise. Your love and your purposes are far greater than we can observe: sometimes we may see the plant pushing up through the soil, but we do not see what has gone before that. For all you do which is beyond our observation or experience, as well as for that which we can see and do know, we give you grateful praise.
Amen.
I praise you for continually working in our lives to transform us, even though it means never leaving us alone, never letting us rest content, because you are always refining us, chiselling away at unwanted stone, challenging our attitudes and helping us to move on. May I more willingly co-operate with your process of transformation, that I may become much more fully the person you intend me to be.
Amen.
Lord, I thank you for the great adventure of life and all its opportunities. I would learn that the future is not mine to manipulate, although you do give me freedom to make my own decisions. I would also learn that the most perfect will of God does not always proceed in predictable straight lines, but through many twists and turns. Help me to be both a learner, listening to the experiences of other people and a catalyst, raising the questions which people need to answer and enabling action to take place. When one door opens help me to keep knocking at the next one, following through where each avenue may lead. Use me as someone who takes things forward, sees things through and contributes towards developments being made. May I play my part in working alongside others in a team and may I keep learning what it means to work alongside you.
Amen.
Sometimes in conversations with other people, Lord, we become aware of some weakness in ourselves. Help us to learn from this awareness, and, in your strength, to move out of that particular rut. Help me to learn today, from the signals others give out, what in my behaviour is constructive and helpful towards them, and what is off-putting; what I say that people may misconstrue; where I fail to think things through sufficiently; where I am hurtful in flippant remarks I may make. May my speech contribute towards the well being of others and be part of your purpose for their lives and mine.
Amen.
I long to share the adventures of this day with you; and to discover the joy and wonder that you bring to life. I commit to your gracious care each one of the people who have primary claim on my affection. May today see an exploration of spiritual truth and an experiment in new methods of living. Help me to use the gifts, interests and skills you have given me for the benefit of others. Help me to be alive and sensitive to the promptings of your Spirit and to the feelings of other people. Each day may I love, trust and serve you more.
Amen.
Thank you, Lord God, for other people-for those whose company I enjoy and with whom I can relax; and those whom I find difficult to live with, who challenge me into a broader way of loving. For those who remember me in acts of thoughtful kindness and prayer; those whose love for me is an essential part of their lives, and my love for them an essential part of mine. For those, even people I have never met, whose writings and thinking interest and stimulate me. Remind me today of how my own work is being done for the benefit of other people; and help me to produce my best for them, to take their feelings and thoughts into account. Above all thank you for your presence at the heart of my life.
Amen.
Yours, Lord, is the standard by which our lives are to be judged. Yours is the strength upon which we depend. Yours is the inspiration we need to guide our lives. We thank you for every opportunity to return to you, to reassess life by your values and to be restored to the sanity of your ways. Guide all who have the responsibility of leadership and those who act as their main advisors. Help us to exercise our own responsibilities faithfully and well, submitting to the discipline which makes us truly free. We pray for those who are without power-refugees with no home; children with no parents; the poor with no land; the hungry with no food; the war-torn with no peace; the anxious with no rest. Use us in readjusting the balance, righting the wrongs and bringing reconciliation.
Amen.
Thank you, Lord God, for other people - for those whose company I enjoy and with whom I can relax; those who remember me in acts of kindness and prayer; those whose love for me is an essential part of their lives, and my love for them an essential part of mine; those whose ideas interest, stimulate and challenge me; those to whom I am growing in closer bonds of affection and understanding; even those I have never seen, but from whose skills and work I benefit each day. Thank you for the rich world of relationships, of which I am a part. Remind me today of how my own work is being done for the benefit of other people. Help me, therefore, to produce my best for them, to take into account their feelings and thoughts and to treat each person as one who matters.
Amen.
Thank you, Lord God, for the refreshment of sleep and strength for the new day. Thank you for this opportunity to catch breath, and to begin the day with a sane outlook and a balanced perspective. You are the source of all health-physical, mental and spiritual. Throughout this d me even beyond my death. Every new beginning I have made has been attempted through strength and inspiration you have given. Because my life is not wholly what it should be, help me to begin again this day with you.
Amen.