‘Highlights that stuck out for me were A’s talk of just being with God, … the great conversations on our table and the quiet and stillness during the last five minutes of prayer. It felt like everyone in the room was praying as one in the stillness, amazing.’‘I very much appreciated having the opportunity to spend time with members of our church family over breakfast and to pray together in a relaxed and informal setting.’‘The though of leading kept me awake in the night hours. As i prayed, the thought came to me that if teenager Mary could give birth to the Son of God, then I could chair one and a quarter hour breakfast! There was a real sense of God’s presence in the stillness at the end.’‘I really enjoyed the discussion and prayer time'.
The Oxford Language dictionary defines prayer as: “a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or another deity.”In other words, this defines prayer as what we say to God at set moments. I suspect that is roughly the definition that I had for a good chunk of my life, or at least I behaved as if it was. But I think it is a potentially problematic definition of prayer. Quite a while back, I realized that God “knows what [I] need before [I] ask him.” I prefer a definition of prayer given by Bishop Stephen Cottrell when he said “prayer is the lover coming into the presence of the beloved and saying: I love you.” Both the poetry and the theology of this definition appeal to me. “The lover”, says the bishop, is God and we are “The beloved”. To think of prayer this way has taken a huge burden from me because I know my shortcomings, but I also know who God is and that I can trust him. I am much more comfortable with prayer now. I use silence and contemplation in prayer after a busy day, when my mind is overwhelmed or I come to the presence of God in a moment of silence just seated wherever I am; and I love it. I am quite a restless person and so I like to pray as I go for walks, and find I am able to stay in prayer for longer. I have learned to love the thankfulness aspect of prayer too. Not just listing the things that I am thankful for, but pausing and reflecting on each thing, feeling the emotions that flow from it, savouring it for a moment or two and then thanking God again for it. Practices like these bring home to me the truth of a phrase I once heard: “prayer is the foretaste of heaven”. Prayer calms me down when I am overwhelmed, helps me persevere on life's journey and builds up positive feelings and emotions that make me resilient. Shared by Jackson Klein at our January 2024 Church Prayer Breakfast.
Journeys can be wonderful adventures. Sometimes you have a very clear understanding of where you are going and how to get there and other times things seem to get in the way. This might include traffic, car problems, loss of direction or many other things. Over this Christmas period you may have made many journeys, whether they be to see family or friends, for celebration or just to find time to go out and be together. At times journeys can seem a bit of a pain. This may be true when traveling with children who constantly cry, ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ or ‘How much further?’ The journey may seem to take forever with all sorts of hazards getting in our way. But sometimes the journey itself can be the most fascinating part of the experience. The conversations we have along the way, the scenery that we can take in and admire. The things that we learn or perhaps even the anticipation that builds throughout the trip. I’m always fascinated by the journey that the Magi took. Here is a group of stargazers, who set off on a journey. A journey that lasted several years and a journey that ultimately changed their lives. We read in Matthew’s Gospel that the Magi, saw the star and came to worship him (Matthew 2:2). We know the end of this story, their Epiphany moment but what led up to this was equally important. I wonder what they talked about on the way. Did they speculate about what they would see, and was the final encounter better then they imagined? Did they run into difficulties which they persevered through? Did they get caught in traffic? And after years of traveling, did they ever feel like giving up?At the end of their journey they met Jesus and they worshipped him. An amazing experience for each of them. But this end is just the beginning of a new journey, a journey of discovery – a journey to explore more. The things we learn on the journey are just as important if not more important than the destination itself. It is within the journey that we grow and change, culminating in reaching the goal at the other side. The journey helps us to develop so that we might enjoy the destination when we arrive.As we venture, perhaps with trepidation, into 2024, maybe now is a good time to take note of where we are in the journey. To look around, take stock, enjoy the scenery. To appreciate how far we have come and although we may have a long way to go, to realize we are not in the same place that we once were. It is in the journey that God moves us to the places where he needs and wants us. And it is in the journey that we are changed to be the people who God created us to be, being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3:18). My prayer is that we will fully experience the journey in the hope that what we find at the destination will be truly wonderful and life changing.Revd.Duncan Hutchison, Associate Priest
Bishop Rachel's Christmas message to all in Gloucestershire and beyond.It is said that Christmas is for the children — and amid the twinkling lights and Santas and food adverts, there is a tiny child – Lying ‘away in a manger’ over 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, Palestine. The first Christmas. Although it’s not all sweetness. Let’s not forget King Herod. The nativity plays stop short of Herod’s slaughter of innocent babies, and Jesus and his parents fleeing into Egypt. It all seems rather poignant as I look to the Middle East this Christmas. There has still been the cry of a child – well many. Amid the joyful cries of new birth there have also been the traumatic cries of babies tortured in a kibbutz in Israel; crying child-hostages in tunnels; And there have been the cries of children buried under the rubble of military attack in Gaza; babies removed from incubators; and let’s not forget the cry of the children of Bethlehem and the Westbank. Indeed, let us not forget the cries of children in so many places of conflict, famine, earthquake, flood, poverty… And yet — and yet — here’s the glorious mystery of that first Christmas: Here is God as tiny child come to earth to be amid the mess and pain – And I hear too the cry of that Christmas child Jesus Christ, now as man, crying out in anguish as he is cruelly nailed to a cross. Yet amazingly — almost unbelievably — there is a cry of forgiveness. Here is love amid hatred and division. And his cry of pain and death was not the end of the story. Three days later Jesus Christ arose from the grave — love and life stronger than even death itself. And now the Christmas celebrations and the twinkling Christmas lights all make sense, because the hope and light of Jesus Christ are stronger than the darkness, even in the darkest tunnel or pile of rubble. And yes Christmas IS for the children — the children who are no longer with us, the children who laugh and play, and the children who scream in trauma; and the children now young people and adults celebrating, grieving, laughing, weeping… And that first-Christmas cry from the crib in Bethlehem is a cry of hope and love for everyone. Here is Jesus Christ, Emmanuel which means ‘God with us’. And God IS with us… And with God one day there will be no more crying — no more pain, no more death. Even now God longs to hold us — as children. Longs for us to cry ‘yes’ and to stretch out our hands to God and to each other. May it be so. I wish you a peaceful and hope-filled Christmas.
