Prayer pointers was last updated in time for Sunday 1st 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.
Easter Reflections
During Lent we asked churches to reflect on Stephen's Ash Wednesday sermon, which drew attention to the way in which, as local church, our burdens are multiplied and our resources are divided. During the Easter Season, as we hear from the Book of Acts about the early days of the church, the call is to reflect prayerfully about our mission. How might we renew our churches and our benefice, deal with that mismatch of burdens and resources and grow in faith and mission?
Our 17th May workshop has just taken place. Please pray for the seeds it may have planted. Pray for individual deepening of faith; pray for the ideas that may be germinating; pray for the discussions which may follow in PCCs, after services, and among friends.
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.
As Joyce Keetley enters her final month before retirement we give thanks for her ministry.
Funerals
Pray for those who have been lost by our communities in this week and especially for their families preparing for funerals.
Weddings
We are entering the busiest part of the wedding season. Pray for all our couples, and for the welcome our churches extend as they attend in order to make their Qualifying Connection.
Our PCCs
As the season of APCMs is in full swing, we pray for all those who take on responsibilities and offices across our 8 parishes and 13 church buildings. We give thanks for Morland's APCM last week, and pray for Shap, whose APCM is this week.
Growing Younger
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
Over this half term holiday, pray for rest and refreshment for pupils, staff and governors.
Give thanks for the successful completion of the recruitment exercise at Bolton Primary School, for the excellent candidates, and for Mrs Elstone as she plans her well-deserved retirement.
Online presence
We give thanks for the use we are able to make of our website, WhatsApp Community, Facebook Page and now YouTube Channel. 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.
Ruth has a new computer thanks to national funding, capable of the sort of video editing we think we need to do in order to develop a high quality online presence. Please pray for her to find the time she needs to do more video creation.
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.