Diocesan Prayer Weekend this Weekend

From John Franklin, Bishop's Chaplain.

As we approach our weekend of prayer for the diocese, I think "Let us breathe" is a good synonym for "Let us pray" because we are about drawing in life.  As in prayer we breathe in God-Presence, I think grace is as available as oxygen, and older.  Exciting!  So I am delighted to hear how different parishes are creatively responding to the call to prayer this weekend.  We all need to do what works best for us in our patch, but we are joining together in one big breath that seeks God.
 
We may have plans for how the future of the diocese might look, and we may have some creative imaginings and opinions. There may be some of us who don't even know what the questions are.  But we are with one voice saying "Your kingdom come, your will be done" rather than our kingdom and our will.  And we are praying together! 
 
So what is our prayer? We can encourage one another to trust the prayer that rises in our hearts.  As the old saying goes, 'Pray as you can, not as you can't'.  But specifically we pray for a God-centered, God-listening synod meeting that is graced with wisdom.  We pray for Bishop Kelvin as he considers how we may most efficiently and effectively structure ourselves for Christ's mission.  But above all, we are praying that we will be graced to be in total cooperation with what God is up to in this moment in history on this part of the planet.
 
No matter how few the words are, we are looking forward to hearing what you have heard in your prayer when the notebooks that parishes were supplied with are returned to the diocesan office for Bishop Kelvin by Friday 7 September.  Our prayer, with thanksgiving is letting our requests be made known to God.  And our prayer is listening for God's response.  
 
So let us breathe deeply of God-life, and let us pray deeply in the life- Spirit and welcome what God has for us.