Praying with Others – what Prayer Ministry is and isn’t
SPEAKER : Debbie Orriss
Debbie is a lay Church Army Evangelist and serves in the Diocese of Llandaff as part of its team of Growth Enablers. She is also a Spiritual Director/Accompanier, and a trustee for On Fire Mission - an inclusive network, rooted in the Anglican Church and dedicated to promoting charismatic renewal blended with the riches of Catholic spirituality - www.onfiremission.org.
Debbie’s spiritual journey has meandered through charismatic evangelical worship, liturgical prayer, and contemplative and imaginative prayer. She has been involved in prayer ministry for over 20 years, and as National Lead for Prayer Ministry for On Fire Mission oversees the prayer ministry teams at its national annual conference, seeking to ensure good and safe practice.
Praying with Others – what Prayer Ministry is and isn’t, and how to minister safely
Prayer ministry in gathered worship, is a significant opportunity for encounter with God the Holy Spirit. It provides an intentional space for the Holy Spirit to minister to a person seeking prayer for any area of their life, faith, work, or ministry. It is founded on the belief that every person is made in the image of God and is loved beyond measure by God who calls us into deeper relationship and desires to heal, comfort, strengthen, reconcile and equip. Come and explore how best to exercise this important aspect of the church’s ministry.
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Developing Home-Grown Worship Resources
SPEAKER : Jeff Hankins
Jeff is a retired schoolteacher with over 30 years’ experience of teaching English and English Literature (including a few years in South America where with his wife Sue he served alongside the South American Missionary Society) . A lay communicant within the Church in Wales, he continues to be involved in leading worship and teaching, with a key concern for ‘communication’ within his own Ministry Area.
A lifelong love of poetry and song has meant that he has always written; performs his own poems and songs at poetry/song open-mics, folk clubs, and festivals, but is even more interested in seeing how we can creatively use compositional skills within Christian worship. He continues to enjoy both writing and encouraging others to do so, especially perhaps in the context of exploring and expressing aspects of faith.
Title: Developing Home-Grown Worship Resources
Theme: As Christian worshippers we lean heavily – and gratefully – on liturgies, prayers and hymnody compiled through the devotions of brothers and sisters of the faith who have preceded us, fought the fight, left these wonderful legacies that we can continue to employ, glad of that connection and continuity. And I would argue we still need to acquaint ourselves with worship forms of previous generations of Christians, explore them, celebrate, and use them!
At the same time, part of what it means to be God’s people, is that we express our own experiences of living out the life of faith in the Now, and obey the impulse to voice our own love and praise with fresh creativity. For me this has primarily meant scripture-based songs, psalm-adaptations, poems and short dramas for All-Age services, resources for Advent and Lent study or performance. In our Workshop, I’ll be interested to hear and learn from others who have developed ‘home-grown’ worship resources in a variety of other forms (litanies, liturgies, prayer-services) and how these can be integrated alongside more traditional worship resources. I’m looking to learn as much as to share!
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