Prayer pointers was last updated in time for Sunday 8th June.
This page offers prayer suggestions for personal use and for intercessions relating to the Benefice in our Sunday services. Don't feel obliged to use all of it!
Please pass on prayer requests to Stephen, via email. Please do not request prayers for the health or wellbeing of named individuals in this public space.
Prayer pointers and other initiatives
We give thanks that when we come together as a benefice, the Holy Spirit leads us into valuable new initiatives. These prayer pointers are a result of our training morning on lay leadership of worship. Pray for the success of the other initiatives that are coming from that morning, and from our more recent morning on discernment.
Thy Kingdom Come
We join with Christians all over the world praying with Thy Kingdom Come, for five people, that they might come to know Jesus Christ. We know that God gives each of us complete freedom to know or not know him, so as well as praying for the gift of faith for others, we pray for respect between people of every faith and none. We pray that our common humanity, which as Christians we believe is God's gift and image in us, might bind all together and help us to seek the common good.
Ministry
Pray that the right candidate might come forward for our small part-time post of Good Neighbour Scheme Coordinator.
As they come to the end of this year's training, please pray for our local ordinands (Sue, Lou and Rachel) as they prepare for their final year, and for curacy decisions in the Autumn.
Visitors to our churches
In a week of several enquiries, we pray for all who visit our churches for spiritual, memorial, genealogical or leisure purposes. We give thanks for all in our congregations who keep them clean,
Accessibillity
We pray for help in making our churches more accessible. We give especial thanks for John L in Morland, who spent much of Saturday evaluating the sound system and hearing loop, and making plans for its improvement.
Our PCCs
We give thanks for the completion of our APCMs, pray for our new officers, and ask God to be present in the training that Stephen is offering for new and experienced PCC officers.
Growing Younger
Pray for the continuing success of the Bee Creative lunch club, our joint venture with NISCU in Crosby Ravensworth school, new this last week.
Give thanks for the 10 families who have currently booked baptisms with us for this year. As Ruth develops new systems for the administration of baptisms, we pray for all the visits she will make to baptism families, that they may be fruitful, and the start of a journey of exploration in faith, however tentative. Ask God to bless the worship during which families will be welcomed into the church. Pray that we will find new and innovative ways to use this ministry to grow faith in those who come to us for this special ministry.
Please pray every week for our youth groups in Shap, Morland, Crosby Ravensworth/Maulds Meaburn and Bolton. Give thanks for the lay volunteers who make this huge undertaking possible, as well as Ruth, who is present at almost every session and prepares almost all of them.
Schools
Pray for Mrs Tinkler, as she prepares to take up the post of headteacher in Bolton School in September.
Online presence
As our Facebook page reaches 70 followers and our website has a small revamp this week, we give thanks for the use we are able to make of online communications and social media. Help us Lord to prosper this work and reach out beyond our congregations. In this most hazardous of human activities, keep us on a straight and narrow path. May our corner of the internet always be one that glorifies you.
Diocesan Development Plans
As we give thanks for the large DIP grant which the Diocese has obtained, pray that it may be used as may best serve the Kingdom of God. Pray particular blessings upon all those who will engage with us in the process of spending the Rural Pilot grant in Appleby Deanery, by which it is intended to test projects which will release us from administrative burdens for Mission and Ministry.
About prayer pointers ThePrayer pointers page was a suggestion made at one of our Saturday morning training sessions on 15th February 2025. Talking about leading interecessions, we identified the importance of praying, as a benefice, for all the different needs and activities of our communities, churches, PCCs and congregations. In order to do this effectively, we need to know what each other are doing.