Prayer Services
The Prayer Ministry is our work of prayer for the world and for the prayer requests of our many visitors. A team of about a dozen lay people lead the short prayer services at noon on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Some of the Prayer ministry team also lead the monthly Quietness by Candlelight services. Our inclusive prayers have been so well received that this special evening service has been inaugurated. It takes place at 5.00pm on the last Sunday of the month and comprises music, poetry, prayer and reflection in the context of our beautiful chapel. Visitors are warmly invited to join us at any of these services.
A celtic tradition
In the early Celtic Church of the 7th Century, Christian missionaries at their task of evangelising the People of God, would turn towards their mother Church at mid-day.
Later, in the 12th century, prayer lay at the heart of the monks and nuns of the great monastic houses of Europe. Kings and princes would come to endow their own chapels with gifts of land and money to ensure prayers were said regularly on their behalf. Following this tradition, Sir William St Clair built Rosslyn Chapel and endowed a College of Canons to pray for his soul and those of his family and comrades. The Canons, lay and ordained, lived in the Collegiate Foundation’s lodgings close to the newly built Chapel in which they regularly fulfilled their prayer duties.
This tradition is still honoured today when members of our regular congregation come to the Chapel at noon to offer back to God the hundreds of prayer requests entered by visitors in our prayer request book, and to give thanks for God’s blessings.
The Prayer Ministry Team
The Prayer Ministry Team, conscious of the many and varied backgrounds of our visitors offer prayers gathered from a wide range of faith disciplines. Some members of our team are also trained in Christian Listening, a gentle healing which is offered to those in need of a listening ear.