Prayer Space

There we were sitting having a conversation about prayer and how the city of Belfast could be transformed and then we were joined by Noel: he had been out with his wife and mother-in-law and while he was having some coffee while they went off shopping he heard us talking and became increasingly inquisitive. he told us that he had resisted making an approach, telling himself it would be impolite but , in the end could not resist introducing himself. He was of the same mind and wanted us to know that. we were in a public coffee shop and he heard us talking so he came and joined in on the conversation. That is what real Christianity is all about and what gossiping the gospel means. For some time I have had the vision of creating a prayer space for anyone to comer and pray; a space in the middle of the community rather than hidden away inside the church. Then once I began to talk about it and took some action I have found that others have the same vision. We have a shop, right in the middle of the Protestant community and right up against the so-called peace line where we can pray.

The vision is for a prayer space which can be a shared space where people from different Christian traditions can pray together and own their own at any time of the day. That by praying in this way the division within our city can be healed and Christian unity can become a real thing. That by coming to this place we can pray for the transformation of this city we call home.

Can I ask the people who read this blog to pray for us as we begin to unpack what this means? Can I ask those who read this blog, even if that be a very small number of people to pray for the unity of the Christian community in Belfast? Can I ask you to pray for the creation of a Christian community in Belfast which will be counter-cultural and a clear demonstration of an alternative community: one which does not depend upon wealth or power or the need to dominate but one which has love as its core value and it's DNA?

Noel is just the beginning, there are people out there who are looking for a way to demonstrate unity and a way to demonstrate that they are not sectarian but desire to live with those with whom they disagree. the whole world looks at our city as an iconic example of division: lets show them how a fragmented city can be totally transformed. Where are the people who will stand with us? Where are the people whose desire it is to see the miraculous change in our city?

Bailey entered a strange place, well, strange for him:this was not a place he had been in for a long time. He felt, and looked, very ill at ease. It was like all the eyes of the people were fastened on him. He was all dressed up, and that was very unusual. Stranger still he was on his best behaviour, normally speaking he wouold still be in bed, recovering after the night before. Maybe he was more comfortable than he looked but I don't think so. He had no idea how he was supposed to behave: when to stand, when to sit, when to talk and when to be quiet and his friends were no better. Then there was the singing: he didn't normally sing unless he had been drinking for some time and as he sat down it ocurred to him that he had no money in his pocket and what would happen when the plate came round, how embarrassing?

Fortunately he began to feel a little better as time went on. By the time the sermon came he was feling much better: thankfully the preacher took a more conversational style and encourged inter-action. When one of the other visitors agreed to take some of the honey and when he laughed at a lame joke the akwardness left and the body language changed and there was even the faint glimmer of a smile,

Every time we have people with us who seldom if ever go to church these are the kind of cultural hurdles we expect them to cross. The way our services are arranged suit the people who know what happens and the way it happens: they are the people who have no need to be persuaded by making things suit them. The very ones that we should be helping by the way we worship are the ones who feel like fish out of water and when they don't return we are surprised because we think we have reached out to them. The church that wants to be apostolic in the way things are done and in the way they worship will ask the regular queston about how to make outsiders feel like insidders. Nothing we do will guarentee success, no external changes will ensure that non-believers will flock to the church: that rests in God's hands but that is no excuse for making life as difficult as possible for them.



As the service progressed he felt increasingly tense: would he be bored by the sermon? Would it embarass him? Surprissingly he began to feel less tense and his face reflected that. In fact he actually began to find it all interesting even though it was an involuntary decsion .