Prayer pointers was last updated in time for Sunday 13th July.
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.
The end of term
As the end of the school term approaches, please pray for all our schools, their young people, staff and governors. Join with them in celebrating and giving thanks for the achievements of the year and wishing leavers, adults and children well in the next stage of their journey. Pray that everyone will make it to the end of the race in good mental health, and that the summer holiday will be a time of real rest and refreshment.
We give thanks for the Year 6 leavers' activities in which we have been involved this week, and for others who have been involved in this, including Ad, Andi and Ruth E.
Giving thanks for the last week
We give thanks for the training sessions on PCC membership and roles that we have undertaken in the Benefice this last week. Pray for all those who gujide our churches that they will find the right balance between vision and strategy, and practical tasks, and that they will be strengthened to meet the calling on every PCC, to undertake the whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical.
The week to come
We pray for a busy week to come, with more leavers' activities, JAM and Collective Worship in three schools, PCCs in Bolton, Clifton, Bampton and Crosby, and our final youth groups of the term.
Deanery Administration
We pray for our ordinand, Sue Wigley, as she completes her first week in the role of Deanery Administrator, taking over from Joyce. May she find the work fulfilling, complementing her training for ordained ministry.
Good Neighbours
Give thanks for the appointment of a coordinator for the Good Neighbours project. Pray for the success of this project.
Growing Younger
We pray for gathering of youth work volunteers at the Vicarage on 17th July. Help us to draw together as a team, that our work individually and collectively may become more and more fruitful.
Pray for the holiday meetings of our youth groups that our young people have requested, that this new venture might be a success.
Pray for the continuing success of the Bee Creative lunch club, our joint venture with NISCU in Crosby Ravensworth school.
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.
Pray for the collective worship we lead in schools. Give thanks for the opportunity to explore the bible, pray and worship with so many children every week. Pray that seeds will be planted and nurtured.
Online presence
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.