This page is all about learning to pray. If you want someone to pray for you, for someone you know , or for a situation please contact the Church office of one of the clergy using the details on our contact us page, https://henfield.org/contacts/and they will be delighted to help you.
Prayer, like worship, is at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian. To pray is to talk to God. And it’s a two way thing, we need to listen as well as to speak, a bit like any other relationship.
The Churches of Henfield, Shermanbury and Woodmancote believe that we are all called to persevere in prayer, both for ourselves, our community and the world. We value and participate in different styles of prayer, either by ourselves at home, in our house groups in Henfield, or indeed corporately in our weekly worship. Through prayer we come before God in humility, receiving his forgiveness and a sense of his love, hopeful for ourselves and the world around us and thankful for all that he has given to each of us.
There are many forms of Christian prayer that have developed across the centuries. In recent years the church has rediscovered contemplative prayer and spending time in silent prayer too. Occasionally one of the churches might host a “Quiet Day”. A Quiet day is time set aside to reflect and renew our faith. It’s a time of focused contemplation when we take a theme and use it to help us to connect with God. These days use plenty of stillness and silence to help us to contemplate.
If the more reflective and contemplative type of prayer appeals to you then you may find the following website helpful. http://www.sacredspace.ie/ The Pray-as-you-go part of the website leads you into a 10 minute reflection every day.
If you have never thought about prayer before, or indeed don’t know where to start the Church of England Website has a helpful “Learn to Pray” page on it’s website which you can find here. https://www.churchofengland.org/journeying-with-god/learning-pray
During the week there are many opportunities to join with others for prayer. For details click here. The Church of England also publishes its short services of Morning and Evening Prayer, in both traditional and contemporary versions on it’s website for every day, or you can download the prayer apps to use on a tablet or mobile phone. Click here for more infomation and to downlad the apps