Letter to Circuit

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 The Superintendent’s Letter

Dear Friends,

I write this letter as we approach the season of Lent, the traditional time when Christians focus on the spiritual disciplines of our faith. The word discipline seems rather severe, especially when it is applied to something like prayer, a particular focus of Lent.

Many Christians feel inadequate and ill-equipped when it comes to prayer. We are often filled with a sense that:

• We don’t spend enough time on it.
• We don't have the right knowledge.
• We lack the right words to do it well.

We often lack confidence in our own praying and are conscious of so many other people, "doing it better than me."

I remember feeling all these deficiencies in prayer when I was growing up as a teenager. I remember listening to local preachers praying in the pulpit and marvelling at their heavenly language and fancy words. I remember attending the old Methodist Prayer Meetings, which would frequently turn into "prayer competitions" for the super spiritual, who vied with each other to produce the best extemporary prayers.

The result of this was that I didn’t dare pray out loud until I was into my 20s and had begun to grow in personal confidence. Even then, praying aloud in front of someone else required a leap of bravery and courage. I was afraid that people would laugh if I stumbled over my words.

And yet prayer in its purest form, is such a simple thing. When we look at the prayers in the Bible, they can be really short:

“God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13)
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42)

We are told that Jesus responded very positively to both these one-line prayers. Perhaps the most profound prayer we can utter in our daily lives is, “help me God.” The truth is that fancy words and long sentences are not required when it comes to talking to God. What God wants more than anything is us. He wants our honesty, our personality and all that we are. Prayer is about noticing God in our daily lives and placing ourselves where he is.

The Methodist Church has produced a study series on prayer designed to be used in small groups. It is part of the “Sunshine and Showers” series of studies, which reflect on some of the uncertainties (or mysteries) of our faith. The series on prayer is designed for six sessions, each session exploring a pertinent question as follows:

1. Is prayer boring, or life giving?
2. Do we pray sometimes, or all the time?
3. Are your prayers eloquent, or silent?
4. Does God feel absent, or present?
5. Do you get answers, or no answers?
6. Does God act, or do we act to answer prayers?

I hope to be able to run this series in the circuit between Easter and Pentecost. (Watch this space!) It will be a series for beginners as well as for seasoned Christians, although as I write this sentence I want to affirm that we are all beginners when it comes to prayer.

Anyway, I wish you well as you embark on your Lenten journey this year. I hope that you may find light in the season of Lent and know the assurance of God’s presence with you as you pray to him day by day.

With every blessing,

Revd. David Godfrey