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A Week of
Accompanied Prayer for Tunstall and Rodmersham – 19th to 25th
September St John the
Baptist, Tunstall has had a most successful Tunstall Festival. The weather
was fabulous when required and some wags have even congratulated me on my
prayer power! Many people from
Tunstall and beyond joined in the Festival.
There were flowers and music and open gardens and much enjoyment
experienced by many. Thank you,
everyone who contributed in any way, either by planning, helping or simply
being there! I am very
conscious that the Festival has been a lot of hard work for everyone
concerned. By complete contrast, what
follows is an article about prayer for people from Tunstall and Rodmersham
and beyond. For we all need
help in our prayer lives from time to time. The Week of
Accompanied Prayer is just that. It
lasts a week, from Sunday 19th to Saturday 25th
September. This Week is offered to
you! It comes from the Diocese of
Canterbury. Prayer Companions are
going to be in Tunstall for that week.
They don’t come often and we have had to wait two years between
requesting their company and the date of our actual week. For those of us
who have been physically and mentally very active in the Tunstall Festival or
in the activities of the Rodmersham Society or the Friends of Tunstall Church
or any other events in our two villages, here is an opportunity to reflect
and pray. The Church is nothing
unless we pray to God. There are various
ways of praying. Come and see
how. Your life of prayer will help
you to make sense of your personal journey of faith and may help you to feel
closer to God. The Week will give
those of us who take part in it an opportunity focus for a whole week on the love
of God. The Week is for
active, energetic, caring people who help others, have a sense of humour and
a clear vision of where they are going in their lives. The Week is also for those at the
beginning of their journeys of faith, and for the people who are taking faith
seriously after a long time of coasting along in life. The Week is also for reflective people
whose prayer lives are already rich and committed. Each day from
Monday to Friday in the Week we meet in Church with our prayer Companion for
about half an hour. These conversations
will absolutely respect confidentiality.
The Companions are carefully chosen.
They will affirm you in the love of God and they will suggest to you
ways of praying which you may not have thought of before. The meetings are by appointment, either in
the afternoon or the evening, in Tunstall Church. Your Companion
will also invite you to spend half an hour on your own at home to pray in the
way you and your Companion have worked out. At the end on the
Saturday morning there will be a service to round off the Week. Though the
Companions give of their time freely, they do have expenses and those of us
who take part are invited to contribute £25 each. Kirsty and I have experienced the Week of Guided prayer before
in previous parishes and we will be taking part this time too. There are forms at
the back of Tunstall Church. I will
gladly come to talk to you about the Week and may well come to invite you to
take part in it. This will be a
Week focussing our loves on the love of God – a retreat at home. Come and see something of what the life of
prayer can be like. With good wishes Keith McNicol |
