Dear Friends in Christ,
As Christians, we take prayer seriously. As modern people who function in a secular environment, prayer (speaking to an unembodied entity and expecting that unembodied entity to hear our concerns and address them in a loving way) can feel odd and at times ridiculous.
Nevertheless, we persist. We know God is pleased when we pray.
Every week we pray as we worship God. We commend people and their specific needs to God’s attention. We support the concept of daily devotion with booklets published by our denominations.
At St Anne’s, Daughters of the King have a ministry of intercession (praying to God to intercede in situations we feel need God’s attention). We also pray for specific people during our Sunday /service.
At Zion we publish short term and long-term prayer lists in our weekly bulletin.
These ministries exist to support our congregations in our lives in Christ
It is helpful if all of us are supportive and thoughtfully engaged in our prayer ministries so our ministries can continue to be lively and helpful..
· We need to inform – Daughters of the King and/or the church office at St Anne’s and the Church Office at Zion – when we want prayers for a particular person or situation. The Daughters of the King keep their prayer list confidential. The Zion list and the list generated by the St Anne’s office are public: It is important to make sure the person for whom you asking prayers does not mind having their name on a public (or even a private) list.
· We need to help keep our lists current. Please tell DOK or the Church offices when your person (or people) no longer need our prayers.
· To help keep our public prayer lists current, we have several rules
o When a person dies, s/he/they and their family are on our prayer list for one week.
o When we are praying for someone who is ill or in a difficult situation, that person stays on the prayer list for 4 weeks. Then they are taken off. If you feel they need to stay on the list, you must inform the office once those 4 weeks are done
o Zion has a long-term prayer list. This list is a list of members of the church who live in long term care facilities. Even though these people cannot get to church, they are still members of our church. Praying for them keeps us connected
o Due to the confidentiality that my role requires, I do not place people, unless they have died, on our prayer lists.
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians recommends.’ Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
Faithfully yours,
Rebecca