Sunday 4 May 2008

Contemplative prayer activities

PRAISE PARTY PRAYER ACTIVITIES


Praise and worship God.

Plait three pieces of wool or ribbon together (representing praise, prayer and people) into a small plait, hang on a 'tree'

Need: Wool, ready tied for plaiting. Advent ‘tree’ of twigs stuck into plaster in flowerpot/vase.


Church family, our vicar and family, churchwardens, layreaders, pastoral workers and staff

Winding wool around a cross

Need: prepared twig crosses and wool


Community

Write a prayer on a small paper Guernsey flag for our island and our community, 'plant' on a cocktail stick in oasis. Or draw a picture or symbol to make a ‘flag’ of your own to represent your prayer.

Need: printed Guernsey flags, flag sized pieces of paper, cocktail sticks, oasis.


Friends and Family

Draw/write/colour a doll paper chain of prayers for our families

Need: cut outs of paper dolls, pens, pencils


People in any kind of need

Write a prayer inside a paper 'flower', put it in water, watch it open.

Need: paper ‘lilies’, pencils, bowls.


Children

Write a prayer for a child you know on a piece of paper, put it in a balloon, blow up the balloon, tie and hang up.

Need: balloons, small squares of paper, pens, small lengths of wool to hang balloon by, wool strung across room somehow

Pray for yourself


Draw round your hand. Write your gifts on it - eg kind, understanding, generous, helpful, wise, compassionate... Cut out and pin onto the giant foam hand.

Need: paper, pens, scissors, giant green foam hand mounted on a kitchen roll holder or similar.


Healing

Create a collage in yellow, orange and red to show the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Need: yellow, orange and red paper and fabric scraps, paper strips, stapler


INSTRUCTIONS
Praise and worship God.

Plait three pieces of wool or ribbon together (representing praise, prayer and people) into a small plait, hang on the 'tree'.

Psalm 66
1 Shout with joy to God, all the earth!
2 Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious!
3 Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name."
5 Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works on man's behalf!

8 Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard;


Church family, our vicar and family, churchwardens, layreaders, pastoral workers and staff

Wind the wool around the cross. Pray for all those who work in church, for God’s support and guidance.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts.
1 Corinthians 12 :12 - 31

Community

Write a prayer on a small paper Guernsey flag for our island and our community, then 'plant' it on a cocktail stick in oasis. Or draw a picture or symbol to make a ‘flag’ of your own to represent your prayer.

Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."
Matthew 28:18 - 20


Healing

Create a collage in yellow, orange and red to show the fire of the Holy Spirit.

And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.
Matthew 14:35 - 36

Friends and Family
Draw/write/colour a doll paper chain of prayers for our families and friends.

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

People in any kind of need

Write a prayer inside a paper 'flower', put it in water, watch it open.

Psalm 63
1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

Children

Write a prayer for a child you know on a piece of paper, put it in a balloon, blow up the balloon, tie and hang up.

The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.
Mark 10:13 - 16

Spiritual Journey

Create a maze or pathway with pebbles, reflecting on your own spiritual journey and where this might take you. Think about our church and our new centre, and how we will journey together.

Psalm 119:2,10 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.
I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. 1 Corinthians 10:23 - 24

Pray for yourself

Draw round your hand. Write your gifts on it - eg kind, understanding, generous, helpful, wise, compassionate... Cut out and pin onto the giant foam hand.
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
1 Corinthians’ 12:4 - 10

Spiritual Journey

Create a maze or pathway with pebbles, reflecting on your own spiritual journey and where this might take you. Think about our church and our new centre, and how we will journey together.

Need: pebbles

Praise and Power (Cleaning) Party

PRAISE AND POWER PARTY, SATURDAY APRIL 26TH, 9 – 11

From 9 – 10.30 (approximately) we will be busy cleaning the church: wiping surfaces, moving chairs and polishing the floor.
From 10.30 we can move into the Centre for the prayer activities: these will be set out in different rooms, so feel free to wander around and take part in any of them.
10.45: Coffee and cake!

Please bring if you can:
A bucket
A couple of cleaning cloths.
All purpose cleaner
Rubber gloves (optional)
Hand cream (even more optional)

WELCOME SHEET
Welcome! Please sign on the sheet which particular area you would like to clean!
Most surfaces need wiping with a damp cloth which has been rinsed and wrung out in a solution of flash/all purpose cleaner. Water can be obtained from the washbasin in the toilets or the small sink on the balcony.

The prayer activities are set out in various rooms in the centre. Please feel free to go and take part in any of the prayer activities at any time, either during cleaning or if you need a break! Otherwise, we will all, hopefully, stop by 10.30 to pray individually or in groups

MAIN CHURCH

Main Church seating area polish seats left
Main Church seating area polish seats centre left
Main Church seating area polish seats centre right
Main Church seating area polish seats right
Font area (back of church)
Organ area
Worship Group area
Chancel area
Window ledges
Toilets/lobby outside/hallway
Vestry
Boiler Room/Alleyway
Narthex
Area by the bell rope/cleaning cupboard/hallway
Stairs/Balustrades
Flagstones as you come in
BALCONY
Balcony Floor
Balcony Temporary kitchen area
Balcony Window ledges
Balcony Seats
Balcony Pews
Balcony: organ speakers (need careful and very thorough dusting)

FLOOR POLISHING: IT IS PROBABLY BEST TO MOVE AND STACK CHAIRS BEFORE STARTING TO LEAVE AS LARGE AN AREA AS POSSIBLE. THEN MOVE CHAIRS FROM ONE AREA TO THE NEXT AS EACH IS FINISHED

Main Church seating area floor left
Main Church seating area floor centre left
Main Church seating area floor centre right
Main Church seating area floor centre right
Font area (back of church)
Organ area
Worship Group area
Back of church seating area