Claire Browes – Associate Priest – introduces the new Benefice Prayer Diary:
When I first arrived in the Benefice a few weeks ago, Daniel gave me a map of the two parishes. I have spent some of my time since then trying to walk down every road to get a sense of the place, of this part of our city works. It is a really interesting exercise, there is a great variety between and within the parishes. As you spend time on each street, you notice which roads you walk down regularly and those you never notice unless you knew someone living there. You begin notice the rhythms of a place – the roads where you bump into no one, and the ones which are busy. You notice where the businesses are, where people gather, where there are people in need, where there appears to be little going on, where students are spending time. The Church of England is a church of place. We all in England, whether we know it or care about it, live within a parish. And the church has a responsibility to serve the parish – all of its people – whether or not they are Christians or choose to go to church. William Temple famously wrote that, ‘the Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.’
There are many ways in which we serve the people of the parishes at St Margaret’s and St Giles’ and many more ways we could do in the future. One of the ways in which we can all contribute to serving our local community is to pray for them. To pray for those who live here, those who work here, those who come into parishes to worship. It is a quiet and often unseen act of service and faith. But it is one in which we can all participate.
At morning and evening prayer in St Margaret’s and St Giles’ we will be starting to use a new Benefice Prayer Diary this coming week. Each day we will pray for streets in both parishes and key places of work (schools, doctor’s surgeries, university departments and colleges etc.). We will also pray for other churches in our city and the life of our church communities (bell ringers, ministry team, choirs, children’s work etc.). Not only is this itself an act of service, but it is also a way of helping us to notice all of the different places in our parishes and it may help us to think about how we can best serve them in the coming years. We would love for you to join us in prayer. You might like to come in person for Morning Prayer at St Margaret’s 8.30am (Tues-Sat) and Evening Prayer at St Giles’ 5.30pm (Tues-Sat). You might like to pray at home. You might even like to try walking around the parish yourself. There is a map in the front cover of the Benefice Prayer Diary.
The Prayer Diary can be downloaded below:
If you would like a paper copy, please email Billy (manager@stgilesstmargarets.org)
For other articles by members of our ministerial team, please click or tap below: