[40] Preparations...

For our time of prayer and worship, we revisited Psalm 84:5,6,7 - Blessed are those hearts are set on pilgrimage.

We last looked at this on our first ever meeting together as a discernment community, on Wednesday 7 March - 39 weeks ago.

First we read out the 3 verses. Slowly. 3 times. Then we read out the things that people had shared about this passage back then. Then we responded in prayer.

Progress Report

We have 2 flyers, currently available online and for cutting up into your own flyers.

• website is up and running - information about NYE, and how to get involved.

Wed 19 Dec Eat - Final Briefing - Social and Celebrate

On our last Wednesday before Christmas we will be cooking for the discernment group, to say thanks for all you have been doing. We will eat together at 7pm, then we will have a Final Briefing on how the prayer rota is going to work, access to the sacred space etc etc. Then it will be time for Social and Celebrate.

Week of prayer to prepare

In the week before we start we are setting aside time for prayer and fasting. This was inspired by Carolyn reading Exodus 29 v 37: 

For seven days make atonement for the altar & consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy & whoever touches it will become holy. Offer on the altar morning & twilight - a pleasing aroma made to the Lord by fire. 

We are going to ask everyone to sign up for a morning slot or evening slot to pray at home (or where ever).  There will be 14 slots - 2 people praying per slot. This will start on Friday 28th Dec, going right through to Friday 4th January. 

Meeting in January

We have decided to meet as the discernment community on Wed 16 and Wed 30 January. This will give us two Friday/Saturdays to review and make adjustments if we need to. Then we will meet monthly - on Wed 13 February and Wed 13 March.

New Years Eve

Having met with the vicar of All Saints, we shared an outline for the evening and discussed tasks to share out.

The theme for the evening is HOPE. 

We will start at 9pm and go on until 2am.

As this is the first gathering of SoHOP, during a small part of the evening we will be specifically dedicating ourselves to this new venture and dedicating the house of prayer to God.

We will have rolling programme of worship and prayer throughout the evening, sometimes all together and sometimes individually.  There will be plenty of creative, thoughtful and exciting activities to take part in. At times there will also be the option of joining together to pray about things.

We will conclude the old year with communion and begin the new year with praise and worship.

Refreshments will be available in a side room throughout the evening and we are asking people to bring finger food nibbles to share.

SoHOP going forwards - TEAMS!!

We have identified some teams to help share out the work. These are the teams:

Elaine is coordinating the Hospitality team, Carolyn the Prayer Room, Tracey Comms and Richard governance.

Framework for prayer

We have identified a simple framework within which our prayers will fit. The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbour as ourselves. And these two sum up the heart of the house of prayer.