Setting up a creative and interactive space for prayer is a powerful way to engage worshippers of all ages. If you can’t dedicate a whole room to this, you could set aside a space in church as a focal point for prayer, or create one or more prayer stations. Ask for help from creative and artistic people in your congregation. You could also involve young people in designing and building the prayer space.

Design the space around the vision for these nine days of prayer: to pray for mission and evangelism, and for friends, family and people in the parish to come to know Jesus Christ.

Some easily adaptable suggestions for how to set up prayer spaces or what to put in them are listed below. The aim is for the spaces to engage the senses, to be welcoming, colourful, creative and interactive, allowing people to write, draw, paint or even sculpt an expression of their prayers. You can find more ideas at www.thykingdomcome.global

Thy Kingdom ComeNine Days of Prayer between Ascension and Pentecost

Ideas for prayer stations and prayer rooms

• Put up screens; use a rug or piece of carpet to define the space

• Cushions (on the floor as well as on chairs) • Drape fabric over tables and use lamps and

Christmas lights to create atmosphere• Pitch a tent inside church • Icons, religious art, crosses, inspiring images• Passages from scripture or printed prayers • A space on the wall or a board on which to pin or

stick prayers, pictures and verses • Pebbles, small stones, water, sand and tea lights

(which must not be left unsupervised), bricks, jigsaw pieces, Scrabble tiles or cut-out letters

• Beads and cord to make prayer beads • Ping-pong balls in a bowl and marker pens: people can write a name on a ball, and also take one out

to pray for the person named on it• Lengths of string, braid or leather cord: participants can tie knots in them to remind them of the

people for whom they are praying• Felt tips and coloured paper, Post-it notes, or paper cut into the shape of a heart, cloud or star on

which to write prayers • Stretch string across the space and provide pegs so that people can clip their prayers on to it• A cross on the floor on which people can lay prayers or small stones • Incense and scented oils • A labyrinth drawn on to fabric on the floor

...continued overleaf.

Prayer space in Durham Cathedral, Thy Kingdom Come 2016

Ideas for prayer spaces (continued)

• Hand crosses and rosary beads • Prayer stools • Music player, CDs and headphones• Prayer books, hymn and song books, Bibles, The Book of Common Prayer, Common Worship:

Daily Prayer.

Solidarity with the people in the parish

• Focus prayer on a mission project in your parish or a particular group of people by displaying objects that reflect their concerns. For example, you could represent isolation among the elderly by setting out a chair, blanket, slippers, heater and tray with a cup of soup; the needs of a food bank could be represented by specially labelled tins and packets.

• Shoes can also symbolise different lives. For example, heavy boots could represent someone who works as a labourer, plain black heels a woman who works in an office, or trainers could represent a teenager.

Ideas for prayer stations or focal points for prayer

Prayer tree: find a branch with plenty of offshoots, or tie twigs and branches together. Alternatively, draw a tree on a board. Provide luggage labels, gift tags or cards on which people can write their prayers, and ribbons or string to tie them to the branches. (If you have drawn a tree, provide pins and card.)

Prayer loom: using sticks and twine create a loom. Provide fabric pens or markers and pieces of paper or cloth on to which people can write prayers and weave them into the loom.

Map of the parish: take pictures of key parts of the parish, perhaps as part of a prayer walk, or simply use a large map. Identify key focal points for prayer and where different people from the congregation live. Provide small stickers for people to stick on to the map. Leave space around the edge so they can write prayers for particular locations, and provide string so they can connect the place and the people for whom they are praying.

Grants for prayer rooms

We are able to make small grants of up to £100 to help churches create prayer rooms and prayer stations. This is on a first come, first served basis. Please email your request, along with a short explanation of how you will use the money, to abigail.sanderson@southwark.anglican.org

Please include the name of your church and bank details for your church or PCC, including the name of your bank, account number and sort code.