Intercessions at a baptism : reflections
As I prepared the intercessions, I was aware that:
* Our incumbent had asked for them to be concise
*That I would be asking the congregation to assent to each request, and to make it their own.
*That this service is a family service (with baptism) and therefore that the prayers need to be accessible to children, but not childish.
*That many people present will not be used to prayer, private or public, and so will find it hard to concentrate and hear what is said, still less agree with it, unless the prayers are relevant, concise, and as concrete as possible.
I thought about how far this might illuminate so-called “cathedral prayer”. The first thing I noticed was that planning public intercessions made me much more responsible about being sure that I was praying for our community’s common concerns, much more self-conscious about the words and phrases that I used. I wanted to enable as many people as possible to join in the prayer in real agreement, not just a rote response. The prayers thus became in a way an intended ministry to the congregation, as well as petitions to God.
It could be said that here was an example of corporate prayer as opposed to individual prayer in Bradshaws’ terms.
The other thing I noticed was that I held each section of the intercessions in my mind all day, asking God for wisdom and guidance, and so giving him a chance to take the initiative with me and with the congregation. This is in contrast to extempore prayers, arrow prayers and routine prayers.
This God-initiated versus human initiated dimension is one which Bradshaw does not mention. It is also present in the places where I have left gaps, to permit thoughts from the sermon or from the needs of the benefice to be inserted tomorrow.
The effect of this was that I included less thanksgiving than I had originally planned. I felt that some of the farming community might not appreciate my personal lyricism about the buzzards, butterflies and bees, the hedgehogs, badgers and slow worms. Anything that might bring forth internal dissent was therefore excluded, lest it create a distraction that might prevent anyone from joining the prayer. Thus although it will be true tomorrow that “ministers preside” it is also the case that each individual will be responsible for at the least adding his or her own assent, possibly adding some petitions of their own , e.g. for sick people known to them.
This didn’t mean that the intercessions were not “monastic” in the sense that they didn’t meet the needs of the person praying them. All my personal concerns are in there somewhere, just not necessarily spelled out in great detail. So they were an inward exercise today, as well as an outward one tomorrow, and they are intended to lead each member of the congregation into both inward and outward prayer. Bradshaw says that “Once the morning office is over, the same prayer (if monastic) can be continued while sitting plaiting ropes or performing other manual tasks…”. I really don’t see why that couldn’t also be true of these petitions, if the intercessor has read the signs of the times and the hearts of the people aright, although it is certainly true that the element of agreement would be lacking later.
However, our church is not strong on ritual and this is something that Bradshaw is at pains to stress in describing “cathedral prayer”. We also specifically eschew a focus on any one celebrant, including as much lay participation as possible, so it may be that we are in fact usually quite a long way away from a purely “cathedral” style of prayer.
The contrast between constant praying (“monastic”) and occasional praying (“cathedral” ) is certainly rightly observed.
However, insofar as I believe that the Lord was with me in the composition of the intercessions, they were also a part of my personal relationship with the Lord, helping me to share in his concern that no bruised reed should be broken and no smoking flax quenched. I sensed his beaming joy that non-believers would be coming into his special place, and his commission to love them and minister to them in his name. In this way, the preparation and praying of the intercessions was a “monastic” exercise in Paul Bradshaw’s terms.
Here are the intercessions as first planned, and as typed on Saturday.
Dear Lord and Father of us all, we thank you for beautiful sunny days and for all the lovely colours of autumn. We thank you for all creatures great and small that we see around us.
We pray that you would keep the flocks and herds in our countryside free from disease. Please help farmers in other parts of the country to recover from having their cattle affected by foot and mouth, by blue tongue, or just by the standstill orders.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We thank you, Lord, for Jesus, and for all the people in this church today who love him and follow him. We thank you especially for baby X, and for her parents, Y and Z, her godparents, and all their family and friends, present and absent. We pray that you will watch over X each day of her life; keep her safe, help her to grow happy, healthy and strong, Please help each one of us here today to be willing to encourage her, support her, and help her to grow in faith and love of you.
Lord in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray for Elizabeth, our Queen and also for her government, her armed forces and all the other services provided in her name. Please be their guide in everything they do, so that our nation may live in peace, act justly and support the poor and weak.
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer
We pray for all our family, friends and neighbours. Help us to love and serve one another as you have loved us.
Lord in your mercy
hear our prayer
We pray for everyone we know who is ill, or in pain, or In any kind of trouble or distress. As Jesus touched the sick and made them well, we pray you would touch our sick and suffering friends and family with love, and bring them back to health and strength.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Father, we rejoice to be part of the worldwide fellowship of faith, and ask your blessing on all Christian people everywhere.
Merciful father,
accept these prayers for the sake of your son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen
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