A House of Prayer

During my visit to Manchester, I visited Emmanuel Anglican Church in Didsbury, Manchester both Sundays I was here. I went to the 10.30 service both Sundays. There were lots of details about the atmosphere and nature of the service I could elabourate upon, but I will just share a few brief thoughts on these experiences.

Last week was a family worship service, a monthly gathering centred on inter-generational worship of God. There was no dismissal of the children mid-service. There was no separation of age groups. They embraced the temporal chaos that inhabited the service and incorporated it into the worship. During the reading of a Psalm the curate had the congregation interact through shouting, jumping, and making noise at particular words. Specifically, when the word 'glory' appeared in the reading, everyone was to shout 'GLORY!' to the top of our lungs; when the word 'thunder' appeared, we were to stomp our feet and pat our hands loudly on our legs; when the word 'jump' appeared...well I'm sure you can guess what we did. The homily was based upon the the story of Nicodemus' coming to Jesus in the dark and the conversation that ensued (John 3). Hence the message was on simplicity, an appropriate one for such a service I might add. I must say that this service was quite a refreshing experience as people of all ages were welcome to the same worship of God!

Today was a bit different, but quite refreshing in other ways. Though it wasn't called a 'family service,' there still was not a portion where children were asked to leave. Children were still there, but the atmosphere was more reflective and the liturgy more structured. The message was offered from a representative of Christians Against Poverty UK, which is an organisation that offers money management courses and provides ways to help teach folk how to get out of debt that cripples so many in Western culture. The brief introduction the person gave reminded me of the Dave Ramsey course I have heard about in the States. But the main thing upon which I want to reflect here was in the prayers that the congregation offered in the liturgy. They were prayers of confession and of intercession.

In the prayer of confession, there were four main sections, the middle two of which caught my attention the most. 1. "We have failed to share in the pain of your suffering." When the slide for this portion of the prayer was posted on the wall, there was a frame of a zoomed in picture of John 11.35 ("Jesus wept"). That passage reminds us of the extent of Jesus' humanity (i.e., to the fullest) such that he shares in the pain of the suffering of others. To be fully human is to share, have fellowship with others, not solely in moments of joy, but especially in pain and suffering. 2. "We have run away from those who abuse you." The slide here had the book cover of Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. I thought that was an interesting picture to show. I'm still pondering on the implications of that, but I think there is something to the fact that maybe we're afraid of losing the intellectual battle for faith...that if we dare to encounter a conversation with one we know who disagrees with us, we fear we would be stripped down and found wanting in our understanding of the nature of God and of creation. Or we fear the Sauls in our world who are persecuting the Body. In that sense, #2 is not that different than #1.

In the prayer of intercession, which was for about 10 minutes, we prayed for the sick and dying in the congregation and for the sick and dying of the world. We prayed for Iraq in light of the slaying of a Sunni lawmaker, Harith al-Obeidi. I don't remember the last time in a church service I was at that interceded for the concerns of the local congregation, the global Church, the dying, and so forth for more than 90 seconds. I was glad to be reminded, this morning, that the Church indeed is to be a 'house of prayer for the nations.'