Thursday, July 20, 2006

Prayer for peace

I was just thinking about prayer for Israel and Lebanon. While we're out of the building, how about a public prayer meeting? We could do this on upper street on a summer evening, in a cafe or pub, or if we had to, I guess we could borrow St Mary's. It's a subject that everyone knows about and could pray about. We could invite other churches, but also just put sandwich boards out in the street and see who pops in. It would have to be either led from the front with a bit of a programme, or as a prayer room format, with space to write or draw on the walls, etc. If we went for a programme approach, we could try and find relevant musicians or speakers, and maybe take a collection for peace maker teams or someone like that. We'd have to be careful that we weren't political in any way, but I think it would be a powerful statement and a way of engaging with something that everyone is talking about and feeling powerless about.


Saturday, July 01, 2006

Urban Wilderness


It is in the wilderness that the dizzying noise of life fades, and where the soul is exposed to God. For sure the mountains can be wilderness to us, but can we find wilderness in the city?
Wilderness is not obviously a place of beauty, rather it is the lost place, barren and unloved. Neither is it a safe place, it is enhabited by people who are outcast or recluse. The wilderness is the hard place, the quiet place. Where can we find it?