Taunton Deane & South Sedgemoor Methodists

A programme of Continuous Prayer started across the Methodist Church at the 2005 Conference in June and ran until the end of August 2006. For more background, see here...

Churches across the Plymouth and Exeter District took part during the two weeks from 12th May 2006.

We took part at the very beginning of this period with 36 hours of continuous prayer in four different churches, supported by the other churches in our circuit.

The event is now complete and you can read Debbie’s final report here.

If you have any ideas about how we can continue what was started, or would like to make any other comments, please e-mail us.

For reference, the outline programme was as follows:

·	Sunday 7th May 6.30pm Combined Circuit Service at Bridgwater. This launch event included distribution of Pray Without Ceasing candles to each Church in the Circuit.

·	Friday 12th May 00.00 – 08.00 Lisieux Way

·	08.00 – 22.00 Temple

·	Friday/Saturday 22.00 – 08.00 Pawlett

·	Saturday 13th May 08.00 – 12 noon Bridgwater

·	Sunday 14th May 6.30pm Combined Circuit Service at Rowbarton. This was the Network Easter Offering Service and included a time to bring forward the prayer chains and other items created during the week.

During the 36 hours of prayer, there was a wide range of activities to dip into as well as times of organised prayer and worship, including the saying of the Lord’s Prayer on the hour every hour.

The Programme can be dowloaded in Adode/pdf (68KB), Microsoft Word/doc (54KB) or Rich Text/rtf (810KB) formats.

This was the Poster used to publicise the event (pdf format - 904KB)

For general enquiries that aren’t covered here, please contact Rev Debbie Borda.

There was a home pack produced to allow those who couldn’t make it to one of the locations to join in the time of prayer. There may still be some available if you would like one. E-mail 247homepack@pilgrimpeople.org.uk with your contact details and we will see if we can find one!

Background to Pray Without Ceasing

The 24/7-prayer movement began in England in 1999 by a group of young people who felt they should pray non-stop for a month. From this a chain of prayer meetings spread across the British Isles and abroad.
Pray without ceasing, the Methodist Church’s year of prayer was launched at the Methodist Conference in June 2005 and runs until the end of August 2006. It was initiated by the young people of the Methodist Church and its aims are:

·	To encourage continuous prayer

·	To affirm prayer that is already happening

·	To open new channels of prayer and encourage people to try out new approaches to prayer

·	To be inclusive of age, gender, culture, theology etc.

To have a clear link to the Priorities of the Methodist Church
(which are Worship, Learning & Caring, Service and Evangelism).

Further Links

Pray Without Ceasing - www.praywithoutceasing.org.uk
This is the official site with news, ideas and prayer spaces and a chat forum.

24-7 Prayer - www.24-7prayer.com
The site for the 24/7 prayer movement. Has details of prayer around the world, Boiler Rooms (permanent 24/7 prayer) and lots more.

The Northumbria Community - www.northumbriacommunity.org
Community inspired by Northumbian Celtic spirituality. We used some of their daily offices during the event. They are available online also.

Sacred Space - www.sacredspace.ie
Lovely site, with daily prayers that you can follow at your computer as well as an online retreat. Run by the Irish Jesuits.

Labyrinth - www.labyrinth.org.uk
A place to learn more about labyrinths as spiritual places. You can also take part online in a virtual labyrinth.

Approaches to Prayer - www.annunciationtrust.org.uk/approaches
A site full of ideas and explanations about different type of prayer.

If you have been inspired to get away and go on retreat ...

The Retreats Association - www.retreats.org.uk
A national body with links to places and other denominational organisations.

Locally, there is ...

The Community of St Francis, Compton Durville -
www.franciscans.org.uk/h-compton.html. Small community near South Petherton. They have an open day on May 27th 2006.

Abbey House, Glastonbury - www.abbeyhouse.org

Ammerdown, Radstock, near Bath - www.ammerdown.org

St Gildas Christian Centre, Langport - www.chemin-neuf.org

If you have a suggestion for other links or resources we can add, please e-mail the webmaster.