We encourage everyone to develop an intentional and life‑giving routine of prayer, and to become involved in the prayer life of the Benefice. We support this by organising prayer events: quiet days, prayer days, a week of guided prayer, individual guidance on prayer, teaching on public and private prayer, and opportunities to pray regularly with and for others. There is a strong home‑group tradition within the Benefice, with meetings throughout the week for Bible study and prayer. The healing ministry plays an important part in the life of all three churches, with special services each month and regular times of prayer.

Click here for Archbishop Justin Welby's lecture on 'The risk of prayer', focusing on the renewal of prayer and why we should pray.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon,

Where there is doubt, faith,

Where there is despair, hope,

Where there is darkness, light,

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi  (1181 – 1226)

Published in The Open Gate by David Adam, SPCK, 1994

Heavenly Father, Lord of all,

in the struggles and conflicts in the world,

may compromise be seen as strength, not weakness.

Let care for each person, made in your image,

be seen as the central issue, not as an afterthought.

Where there are seemingly irreconcilable difficulties,

bring insight and inspiration to the leaders

in their search for a way forward.

May humility triumph over aggression,

and may passion for justice hold sway over desire

for victory at all costs.

Lord, in your mercy, hear this prayer.

Amen.

Rupert Bristow, Only Connect, Kevin Mayhew, 2009