Prayer is so important here at St. Stephen’s! It is part of who we are. It is also the heart of our worship service, which in many ways is one long prayer. There are also separate prayers, of course, and among these are the “Prayers of the People,” the ones always said by someone other than the priest. This is where we pray not only for the church and the world but also for the many individual concerns of all of those present.

Recently we’ve changed how we gather of those concerns. In the past, you had to notify Loren or Debra of your prayer request ahead of time. They would then add it to the list that was read each Sunday. The trouble was, that list kept getting longer and longer, and it was not always clear when a name should come off. Also, there was no way for the prayers on the minds of those sitting in church every Sunday to be included. As a result, starting a few weeks ago, we decided to make the process more direct. We decided to start collecting everyone’s prayer concern anew each Sunday morning.

You must have noticed the change. For one thing, there’s now a lectionary with a piece of paper on it in the Narthex just beside where you get your Sunday bulletin. That’s what you see here in the picture here. Randie is demonstrating its use. The paper is to collect names of people you would like us to pray for.

There are many benefits in doing it this way, but there is one drawback. That is that sometimes the handwriting is simply illegible. Believe me, we do our best, but some names are impossible to make out. Please help us with this. You can do this by remembering to always print the name of the person you would like us to pray for. Otherwise, the name may have to be skipped. No one wants this. Of course, God always knows who you want to pray for, but all of us would like to know too. That way we can join you in your prayer and hold the person in our hearts too.   

By the way, we still have a way to include all of your long-term prayer concerns in our Sunday worship. They are part of a list that we keep on the altar and so are carried to God as part of our entire service. God hears them. Of that, you can have no doubt!