Prayer in our Benefice
The Prayer Chain
is a crisis hot-line for anyone with a need in an emergency. Members of the chain telephone each other immediately so that confidential prayer support can be offered without delay.
Please contact The Benefice Office on 01962 880 845 or Betty Allen on 880316.
Benefice Monthly Prayer Leaflet
A monthly prayer leaflet is produced and circulated to assist parishioners in their daily prayers, to consider and pray for the needs of the Benefice. To comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), individual names are not printed, but we believe that God knows who these dear people are, and His Holy Spirit will intercede on our behalf.
If anyone would like to be added to the electronic circulation please contact Carol Ward via the Benefice Office (office@downsbenefice.org.uk).
Paper copies are available at the back of our churches
Littleton Weekly Prayer
Thursdays at 4.15pm, in Littleton Church Room, Church Lane:
A short service lasting about 30 minutes to which all are welcome.
The Benefice Monthly Prayer leaflet is used during this service of Evening Prayer but, in addition, for those who have requested it, those needing our prayers are prayed for by name.
Contact: The Benefice Office on 01962 880 845
Peace and Wholeness - Temporarily suspended owing to ill health - hopefully to be reinstated in the near future.
A Benefice service for Peace and Wholeness is held on the 3rd Sunday of each month at 6.00pm in St. Catherine's Church In Littleton.
During His earthly ministry, people came to Jesus for healing of body, mind or spirit. The New Testament records many of the times when Jesus healed the sick and restored them to wholeness of life, through prayer, through touch and through laying His hands upon them. In His love and compassion for others, Jesus also commanded His disciples to carry forward the ministry of healing in His name, through prayer and through touch.
The ministry of healing is present in our lives today. It is in Communion services, in Prayer groups, in pastoral care which includes listening and also in our special services for wholeness and healing with the laying on of hands. Touch can be comforting and healing; it can assure us that we are accepted and loved and can console us in our pain in a way that words alone cannot. Each of us is less than whole, wounded ourselves, yet because we belong to the Body of Christ we can also be instruments of healing for one another. Therefore, in this service, the laying on of hands will usually be ministered by both a lay person and an ordained minister.
Through prayer we are invited to open our hears to Jesus and let His love into the most painful places in our lives, whether in body, mind or spirit, accepting that healing is not always about being restored to a state in the past. Healing may not always involve a cure although it may do so. It may be that healing will bring new understanding and, new growth. Our burden may not be taken away, but Christ will give us new strength to bear it. Also, the things which cause us hurt may require action arising out of our prayer. Action and prayer belong together.
We believe that the ministry of healing complements rather than replaces the work of medicine, which is also a gift of God. We also recognise that healing is not confined to this (or any other) service. Nature, work, creativity, relationships, talking and listening are all other aspects of our lives through which God offers us healing. In our special candle-lit service we try to create a quiet, peaceful space in which we can pray and allow the Holy Spirit to be present in our lives. We remain seated throughout this service and there is NO obligation to come up to the communion rail for laying-on of hands. Quiet, gentle prayer for yourself, or others in need, may be all which is necessary for you at this time.
Come and try it.
Quiet times in Winchester
Cathedral Stillness:
Tuesdays: 4.45 - 5.15 pm: the Pastoral Room in the Fleury Building.
Wednesdays: 8.35 - 9.00 am: the Guardian Angels' Chapel
Thursdays: 7.10 - 7.30 am: the West End of the Nave under the Great West Window
Quakers
Quaker House Meetings for Worship:
Wednesdays 12.30 – 1.00 pm followed by lunch if you wish.
First Sunday of Month *10:00 – 11:00 am
(In St Lawrence's Parish Room, next door to the Meeting House)
All other Sundays two meetings 09:00 – 10:00 and *10:30 – 11:30 am
* Children welcome at the meetings indicated.
If at all possible, please e-mail or ring beforehand: email: winchesterquakerwarden@gmail.com
tel: 01962 864184