LETTER FROM THE ECUMENICAL MODERATOR
prayer
MURDOCH MACKENZIE
march 2002
Dear Friends,
You may or may not be glad to know that I have just been singing the song ' When I'm sixty-four '. This means that I am entering my last year in Milton Keynes and the members of the Mission Partnership Executive have been gracious enough to suggest that the subjects for Moderator's Letters this year should be those which I think are important and that I should write as the Spirit moves me. So here goes!
Personally I believe that there is nothing more important for us as individuals or as local churches, or as the Church than PRAYER. This week I heard of someone who asked: ' Can I smoke while I'm praying? ' The answer they were given was: ' No. But you can pray while you are smoking.' Real prayer permeates the whole of life and is summed up in the words of the Psalmist 'Be still and know that I am God'. (Ps 46:10) That's where we start in prayer and it may be that some of us find it difficult to be still, forgetting that real stillness is to be found at the centre of a whirlpool or of a cyclone, or in a boat in the midst of a storm. Mother Teresa, who was a great activist, said: ' Silence leads to prayer, prayer leads to faith, faith leads to love, love leads to service. ' As St Francis de Sales said: ' Every Christian needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when busy. Then you need an hour.' As Tennyson said: ' More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. ' Or listen to Mahatma Gandhi; ' Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied it is the most potent instrument of action. ' When asked for advice on prayer Lesslie Newbigin used to say: ' Buy an alarm clock.'
As a Mission Partnership would it not be wonderful if we could pray purposefully each day for the people and churches of Milton Keynes? Could we lift up to God all the educational work in this city, the city council and Members of Parliament and all that happens at the city centre, as well as the work of the rural areas ? Could we remember the Peace and Justice Centre, the Bridgebuilder Trust, the Global Centre, the Prison Fellowship, the work of ALPHA and the Women's World Day of Prayer? What about the Watling Valley and Wolverton, Newport Pagnell and Bletchley, Stony Stratford and Woughton, Walton and Woburn Sands not to mention the work of various Sector ministries, the various independent churches and so much more. How could we do all of this? The answer is to publicise, make known and use daily the Milton Keynes Prayer Cycle which Gwen Green and the Worship Commission issue each quarter. It is a veritable goldmine for those seriously concerned about prayer in and for Milton Keynes and systematically covers everything mentioned above. Every church receives copies but if you have never seen one then simply ring 311310 and we will send you a personal copy.
When Samuel encountered God in the Temple he said: ' Speak Lord, your servant is listening. ' Too often in our prayers we say the reverse: ' Listen Lord, your servant is speaking.' Prayer is really a conversation with God which goes on all the time and the best theologies such as 'The Confessions of St Augustine ' are in the form of prayer because we cannot speak about God but only with God. All of life is in the form of a prayer because all of life is lived in the presence of God. In ' The Cloud of Unknowing ' we read: ' God wants us to pray and will tell us how to begin where we are.' St John Chrysostom once wrote: ' No-one should give the answer that it is impossible for someone occupied with worldly cares to pray always. You can set up an altar to God in your mind by means of prayer. And so it is fitting to pray at your trade, on a journey, standing at a counter or sitting at your handicraft.' Afrahat, the first Syriac Father said: ' Give rest to the weary, visit the sick, support the poor; for this also is prayer.' John Bunyan said: ' When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words than thy words be without heart.' Carlo Carretto put it another way in ' The Desert in the City ' :
' Prayer takes place in the heart and not in the head. '
Thus let us so practise the presence of God during these precious days of Lent that we may be ready to meet Christ crucified and risen this Easter !
Be still and know
Murdoch MacKenzie
You may or may not be glad to know that I have just been singing the song ' When I'm sixty-four '. This means that I am entering my last year in Milton Keynes and the members of the Mission Partnership Executive have been gracious enough to suggest that the subjects for Moderator's Letters this year should be those which I think are important and that I should write as the Spirit moves me. So here goes!
Personally I believe that there is nothing more important for us as individuals or as local churches, or as the Church than PRAYER. This week I heard of someone who asked: ' Can I smoke while I'm praying? ' The answer they were given was: ' No. But you can pray while you are smoking.' Real prayer permeates the whole of life and is summed up in the words of the Psalmist 'Be still and know that I am God'. (Ps 46:10) That's where we start in prayer and it may be that some of us find it difficult to be still, forgetting that real stillness is to be found at the centre of a whirlpool or of a cyclone, or in a boat in the midst of a storm. Mother Teresa, who was a great activist, said: ' Silence leads to prayer, prayer leads to faith, faith leads to love, love leads to service. ' As St Francis de Sales said: ' Every Christian needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when busy. Then you need an hour.' As Tennyson said: ' More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. ' Or listen to Mahatma Gandhi; ' Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied it is the most potent instrument of action. ' When asked for advice on prayer Lesslie Newbigin used to say: ' Buy an alarm clock.'
As a Mission Partnership would it not be wonderful if we could pray purposefully each day for the people and churches of Milton Keynes? Could we lift up to God all the educational work in this city, the city council and Members of Parliament and all that happens at the city centre, as well as the work of the rural areas ? Could we remember the Peace and Justice Centre, the Bridgebuilder Trust, the Global Centre, the Prison Fellowship, the work of ALPHA and the Women's World Day of Prayer? What about the Watling Valley and Wolverton, Newport Pagnell and Bletchley, Stony Stratford and Woughton, Walton and Woburn Sands not to mention the work of various Sector ministries, the various independent churches and so much more. How could we do all of this? The answer is to publicise, make known and use daily the Milton Keynes Prayer Cycle which Gwen Green and the Worship Commission issue each quarter. It is a veritable goldmine for those seriously concerned about prayer in and for Milton Keynes and systematically covers everything mentioned above. Every church receives copies but if you have never seen one then simply ring 311310 and we will send you a personal copy.
When Samuel encountered God in the Temple he said: ' Speak Lord, your servant is listening. ' Too often in our prayers we say the reverse: ' Listen Lord, your servant is speaking.' Prayer is really a conversation with God which goes on all the time and the best theologies such as 'The Confessions of St Augustine ' are in the form of prayer because we cannot speak about God but only with God. All of life is in the form of a prayer because all of life is lived in the presence of God. In ' The Cloud of Unknowing ' we read: ' God wants us to pray and will tell us how to begin where we are.' St John Chrysostom once wrote: ' No-one should give the answer that it is impossible for someone occupied with worldly cares to pray always. You can set up an altar to God in your mind by means of prayer. And so it is fitting to pray at your trade, on a journey, standing at a counter or sitting at your handicraft.' Afrahat, the first Syriac Father said: ' Give rest to the weary, visit the sick, support the poor; for this also is prayer.' John Bunyan said: ' When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words than thy words be without heart.' Carlo Carretto put it another way in ' The Desert in the City ' :
' Prayer takes place in the heart and not in the head. '
Thus let us so practise the presence of God during these precious days of Lent that we may be ready to meet Christ crucified and risen this Easter !
Be still and know
Murdoch MacKenzie
