Dear Friends,
In these difficult times, it is easy for us to feel isolated and disconnected from each other and our worshipping life. I’m delighted that many of us shared in worship at the weekend, either online or by joining in lighting a candle and praying at 7pm on Sunday. To keep you going in prayer and worship I’ve put together the below list of what we have access to so far. Hopefully this will help sustain us as a community of faith and in service to our neighbours. The Red Letter Days calendar also helps give a little focus to special days and Sundays during the next couple of months.
Little and often is a good way to approach prayer, rather than saving it up for one “big” pray on a Sunday or in times of crisis! By building up a pattern of regular prayer we are more able to weather the storms and tests of life.
I have listed the resources below. They are local and national, internet and non-internet based. If you find other things worth sharing, please do! These suggestions are arranged in an ascending order of “techiness”, beginning with the low!
With my love and prayers,
Our Church
At the present time the church is closed in line with government instructions. We hope that we will be able to reopen the doors soon when the following will apply:
Our beautiful church and churchyard are available for private prayer and contemplation.
NB Please keep a safe distance (2m) apart from other people who might be visiting. Please do not use our church if you feel unwell (pastoral support via the telephone can be offered instead). Please wash your hands before and after your visit.
Daily Prayer Booklet
The ‘Daily Prayer’ booklet outlines a simple service of prayer for each day of the week, with a suggested reading and psalm for each week of the month. This order of service can be used at any time of the day. You may like to set aside a quiet space with a cross or an icon in which to say it. You may find it helpful to allow some small silences between each part of the service leaving space just to be with God and to let God be with you.
Sundays and Red Letter days
Click on the image below to see this – it suggests themes for prayer and reading for every Sunday between now and Trinity Sunday (7th June) and for some of the ‘Red letter days’ that fall on weekdays. You may like to use these as an extra resource and guide to prayer when using the Daily Prayer booklet.
Prayer partnering
Using the daily prayer booklet or other materials, prayer can be very effective over the telephone. You may have a friend you would like to partner up with for prayers, or contact Fr. James if you would like to be “partnered.” Fixing the same time each day can be helpful in giving some structure to this time.
Broadcast media
- BBC Radio 3 (90.5FM and DAB) Recordings of Choral Evensong broadcast – 3.30pm Wednesdays, repeated Sundays 3pm. And on BBC Sounds / catch up.
- BBC Radio 4 (198 LW and Digital Radio) Daily Service – every day at 9.45am. And on BBC Sounds / catch up.
- BBC One Songs of Praise – Sundays at 1.15pm and BBC Iplayer
Here on our website You can join Fr. James in Morning and Evening Prayer Tuesday – Friday; there is a link to the Church of England website to download the order of service. On Sundays, we’ll stream the 9.30am service through our website and the order of service can be downloaded as a pdf. There is also a new section of ‘Prayer Resources’.
St Albans Cathedral are developing online and live-streamed worship and prayer resources www.stalbanscathedral.org
All Saints Vicarage
Eve of the Feast of the Annunciation, 24th March 2020