St Peter's and St Paul's will be coming together to study "The Prayer Course", developed by Pete Greig of the 24/7 prayer initiative. This is an online course with handouts and discussions as well as time to put prayer into action. The initial proposal is for this to be done centrally in both Churches for the 8 weeks on three occasions each week, when groups will meet for around 75 minutes to follow the course. This would be Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings in St Peter's and Wednesday lunchtime at St Paul's. During the course the Wednesday morning session would replace the midweek communion service. Between May 9th and 19th there will be a break to engage with additional prayer events for Thy Kingdom Come".If you are interested please sign up in church to indicate which session you will be attending The book "How to Pray" by Pete Greig is available as a companion to the course but is not a handbook for the course. A central order for the book may be made if there is demand.The first sessions at St. Peter's will be on Tuesday April 16th at 7:30pm and Wednesday 17th at 10am. For further details on the course click here.
The time of prayer between Ascension [40 days after Easter] and Pentecost [50 days after Easter] has in recent years become an international time of prayer on the theme - Thy Kingdom Come. This year it falls between May 9th and 19th. Thy Kingdom Come is a global ecumenical prayer movement that invites Christians around the world to pray for more people to come to know Jesus. What started in 2016 as an invitation from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Church of England has grown into an international and ecumenical call to prayer. Click here for further background.Here at St. Peter's we are planning special days of prayer in those ten days and just before the celebration of Pentecost on May 19th. Everybody will be given a copy of the Thy Kingdom Come Prayer Journal. There is a space in this journal for us to list 5 people that we would like to pray for during this time. It also includes a prayer with a helpful picture for each day. The prayers encourage different ways of praying, such as using art, journaling, icons, thanksgiving, prayer walking and pilgrimage. The church will be open at specific times for prayer. The 2 Gildersome primary schools have also been invited to come and spend time in church experiencing prayer. Interesting ideas that will be used include a prayer tent and labyrinths with a full size labyrinth being created. Prayer stations will be set up around church and be available throughout the week. If there is something close to your heart, be it local, national or international, and you would like to be involved, there will be a planning meeting at St Peter's at 7:30pm on Wednesday 24th. We would love to see you there. If you cannot make the meeting let Patrick or Denise know. We are feeling very excited about Thy Kingdom Come, especially as it coincides with our Prayer Course. Join us in building on our prayer life in Gildersome, and help to make a difference to our village, the UK and the world!
