No. 88 April 2020

This month our special focus is on Parish of St Michael’s Sandhurst and prayers for the Church and for the world in the midst of the Corona virus pandemic.

Please pray for:

• Rector:                                               Rev John Castle
• Associate Minister:                          Rev John White
• Associate Minister:                          Rev Jane Kraft
• Family Worker:                                 Angela Harper
• Youth Worker:                                   Mike Gower
• Church Warden:                              Catherine Wilkins
• Church Warden:                              Emma Hodge
• PCC Secretary:                                 Dave Percival
• Treasurer:                                          Jon Toohey
• Church Office:                                  Sunita Mcintosh and Nicola Thompson

We at St Michael’s would like to forego our “turn” to lay our small needs before you in the cycle of prayer, and use it instead to call out to God across the Deanery, Diocese and nation for:

• Those with a prophetic calling to lead the church in hearing what God wants to say to us through the current crisis;
• That just as the people of Israel were stripped away from their place of worship, the Temple, when they went into exile, so we as the people of God having been stripped of our places of worship now would hear God’s call to his people to establish our homes and families as centres of worship, and to pray for our nation and our world (Jer 29:4-7).
• For our keeping of Lent, Holy Week and Easter in a totally new way, both as individuals, through services on the radio and television and live streaming from our Churches and Cathedrals.
• For the innovators and creators amongst us to rise up with new and imaginative ways to reach out beyond the confines of the church to speak Shalom to the anxious and frightened of our land;
• For the pastors and carers reaching out to those who are isolated, struggling and alone;
• For families separated by distance and isolation, unable to offer the care and support they long to give each other.
• For the husbands and wives terrified at the thought of one or other being rushed off to intensive care; and for those grieving the loss of a dear partner or friend sometimes without the time or opportunity to say goodbye;
• For the key workers in this land, already exhausted and stressed and knowing they have months of pressure to come, that they may know both God’s strength and his peace;
• That as a nation God’s light will shine into all that we have done, both as a nation and as individuals by our selfishness and greed, and that we may cry out in repentance and turn once more to the Lordship of Christ;
• For all those in leadership in churches of all denominations and of all faiths, and in our Anglican Communion, Archbishop Justin, Bishop Steven of Oxford, and Bishop Olivia of Reading.
• For the clergy and leadership teams in our parishes that they may have great wisdom and fortitude as they lead us through this current storm;
• For those in leadership in our country, Boris Johnson, his cabinet, all our MPs and local politicians and those advising them.
• That we may all hear the voice of our Lord saying ”Quiet, Be still”, and may be amazed (Mark 4:39)