Pray 2-3

To conclude East Anglia District’s year of prayer, we’re doing a special Christmas Prayer initiative for December 2023.

There are resources here and being sent out to Circuits for you to use.

A Christmas Prayer Video

A short video of prayer and blessing that can be played in any service (particularly good for services where visitors will be joining you). You can use the YouTube copy or email our District Mission Enabler Yasmin for an ad free version.

A Christmas Prayer Banner

Circuits have been supplied with 7 vinal all-weather welcome banners to use outside their churches this Christmas.

If you’d like to download your own copy to print you can click here for a printable PDF version which can be sized up to 52cm x 91cm

A Christmas Prayer Postcards

We’ve printed 5000 postcards with a Christmas Prayer written on and sent them out to all our Circuits. If you didn’t manage to get any or would like to print more you can click here for a PDF printable version.

A Christmas Prayer Poster

A welcome poster for you to display in your church. Click the image below or click here to be taken to the PDF print version to download and print – A4, A3 or A2.

A Christmas Prayer Social Media graphics

Coming soon!

We’re doing a special prayer focus for the month of May

It’s a special month where we celebrate Pentecost and where we see spring blossoming all around us (It’s not just that it rhymes with pray – honest!).

So how can you get involved?

Social Media Graphics

We’ve got a set of 40 social media graphics that you can use each day through May. You can download them all here…

Click here to view graphics

You’re welcome to use them however you like across any platform, print them, use them in services or groups etc.

Praying For You Postcards

We’ve designed and created 4 beautiful postcards for members to use to send a greeting, thoughts and prayers to someone. If you’re in the East Anglia District we’ve printed 1500 packs of the 4 designs for distribution at the Spring Synod, please ask your Synod rep if you would like one.

If you didn’t manage to get one or if you’d like some for a special event, or adjusted specially for your Church (East Anglia District) just drop our District Mission Enabler, Dr Yasmin Finch a line.

Outside the East Anglia District?

You’re welcome to use the resources.

If you want to print your own postcards, click the images below for print-quality PDFs.

Posters

If you’re in the East Anglia District you can order up to three A2 posters to display at your church (they have to be the same design). Choose from the ones below and order through District Mission Enabler Dr Yasmin Finch

Outside the East Anglia District?

You’re welcome to use the resources.

If you want to print your own posters, click the images below for print-quality PDFs.

Flower Garland

For the small words you can choose between the following:

🌸SMALL WORDS A (shown above)

Would you like to feel closer to God, maybe you’d like to see if God’s real?

We encourage you to pray and see what happens. Need some guidance? have a look at…

🌸SMALL WORDS B

We’re encouraging everyone to pray a little more in 2023.

Why? Because when we pray, good things happen!

See what happens for you.

🌸SMALL WORDS – other

<create your own>

Prayer walking is a great way to pray for your village, town or city.

Come along to our Prayer Walking zoom meeting to start your journey, meet others who are interested in taking up prayer walking and learn about how to approach it.

We have Rev Nigel Fox, supernumerary in the Norwich Circuit sharing in the session and will be mentoring prayer walkers via email through the year. Rev Nigel has severe hearing loss and finds email is a great way to communicate, share his wisdom and offer people support.

Rev Nigel has many years and wonderful experiences of prayer walking.

Open to all.

Prayer Walking Zoom Meeting

Thursday January 19th 2023, 7pm

Click here to book.

Did you know East Anglia has some beautiful, spiritual, nationally significant, pilgrimage routes weaving through it? Including some which feature our own Methodist Churches.

Why not try one, or revisit one, in this year of prayer?

Where?

Have a look at the interactive map on this website – www.britishpilgrimage.org

There are routes for all abilities.

All 3 of the cathedrals in our District have 1 day pilgrimage routes…

Ely

Bury

Norwich

As well as one around Cambridge

And of course, there are the many pilgrimage routes to Walsingham, where our Methodist Chapel is still open and part of the Christian heritage of the village. If you take a pilgrimage there, feel free to contact our team working in the village who would be delighted to meet you.

Possibly the shortest pilgrimage path in the District is the mile from the Slipper Chapel in Walsingham, along the disused railway into the village.

What other resources are there?

Have a look at these websites…

East Anglian Pilgrimages Network

Suffolk Pilgrim

Salt, Saint and Shrines: A Norfolk Coast Pilgrimage

This is an easy, teeny-tiny, one. Join us and commit to 1 minute of prayer a day for the whole year.

How do I do it?

Decide and do! Commit to one minute of prayer every day for a year. Maybe you could find a friend to do the same and share the journey with you.

When?

Perhaps the easiest way is to find something you do every day and weave in your minute….

Perhaps while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil.

When you wake up.

As you’re brushing your teeth.

Or maybe you could set aside a sacred minute and sit in your favourite chair or stand barefoot outside?

There are lots of ways.

You could set a daily reminder on your phone.

Or put your bible by your bed to remind you at night.

Let us know how you getting on through the year and we’ll update this page with some stories. Email our District mission Enabler, Yasmin, yrfinch@gmail.com

Come along to a zoom or in-person Pray 2-3 event

November 2022

Pray 2-3 Info Meeting with Dr Yasmin Finch

Want to hear more? How to get involved? Where the idea came from?

Come along to this zoom meeting with our District Mission Enabler Dr Yasmin Finch

Thursday 24th November, 7pm on Zoom

To register for this event click here.

January 2023

Pray 2-3 Launch Worship with Rev Julian Pursehouse

Join us for a small act of worship to begin our year of prayer.

Monday 16th January, 7pm, on Zoom

To register for this event please click here.

Prayer Walking with Rev Nigel Fox

Interested in starting prayer walking? Wondering how to begin? Or maybe you’re a seasoned prayer walker? Whatever stage you’re at this meeting is a chance to come together, hear more and meet others.

Thursday January 19th 2023, 7pm, on Zoom

Click here to book.

A new or refocused prayer meeting for 2023. Once a month? Once a week? Once a quarter or term? Zoom? In person? Up to you.

What do we do?

You could…

Meet early in the morning at church – 6am and a coffee for 30mins of prayer

Do something creative as you pray – praying and quilting, praying and colouring

Start a pray and dog walk

Or a prayer and gardening group

Take 15 minutes before or after church services to gather and pray

Would your Circuit like to host a 24/7 prayer room?

What’s a 24/7 prayer room?

It’s a specially dedicated room, decorated and filled with prayer stations. People sign up to a 1 hour slot and pray in the room. Rooms last different lengths of time from a day to a week, but we’re suggesting a 36 hour slot for this.

It could come to your Church or Circuit any time in 2023.

How will we set it up?

You’ll work with District Mission Enabler, Yasmin Finch, and we’ll support you all the way.

We’ll provide the decorations, the prayer stations and help in the planning and organisation.

You’ll need to form a small team to run it, choose a room in one of your churches, provide refreshments, fill the slots and let people know it’s happening.

A whole hour? That’s a long time to pray!

Don’t worry, everyone feels like this (maybe even the minister!) but in the prayer room there’s so much to do and read, paint and draw, reflect and listen to, the hour flies by.

What about the middle of the night?

Yep, the room runs all night long. You’ll just need to have a system where the person in there can lock the front door and the next person can knock or make them aware they’ve arrived. In one room we ran, the next person would just knock gently on the window of the room which overlooked the carpark.

A 36 hour prayer room incorporates 1 night of prayer, which isn’t too hard to manage once the night owls and the early birds have signed up.

Where can I find out more information?

If you’d like to talk to Yasmin about hosting a room in your Circuit, just drop her an email – yrfinch@gmail.com

You can look at other 24/7 prayer rooms and learn about the 24/7 prayer movement here – www.24-7prayer.com