A Volley from the Canon, Number 138, POP

A VOLLEY FROM THE CANON, NUMBER 138 The Prayers of the People We Anglicans are a people of prayer—“common” prayer—and that is a good thing. More than any of the Protestants, we pray publicly for each other, by name. We even have a segment of our liturgy designated for that purpose, the Prayers of the People. How, then, does a good thing become a distracting one, damaging the flow of the Sunday liturgy? When it becomes a seemingly endless recitation, poorly or hastily read, featuring intercessions that are not, in the main, the concerns of all the people, but the interests of a few individuals, who might not even be present. The petitions can then become more about the inclusion of various members than about the needs of those prayed for. To be specific, I’ve seen elderly individuals’ names reside in the Prayers of the People longer than the tenure of the average rector, and these are people who are known to only one in the congregation, the relative who put their name on the list in the first place, and who attends only sporadically. But just try to remove that name, and you have a major controversy. Now you’ve declared that you are callously unconcerned, not just about poor Aunt Agnes in Clearwater, but about the nephew or niece who wants her prayed for. Please note, I am not saying that somebody’s Aunt Agnes, whom I do not know, does not warrant my prayers. I am suggesting, though, that a) elderliness is not of itself an illness, and it seems overkill to me to have people languish on the prayer list for many years, and b) I’m not convinced the Sunday Eucharist is the proper place to let that happen. The question is, how can we satisfy the needs for inclusion and intercession on behalf of those “in any kind of need or trouble,” without putting the whole congregation into that condition? At this point, I concede that the whole question is moot for very small congregations. They can pray through their whole prayer list, including all the Aunt Agneses, and still get home before Tuesday, maybe even before the Sunday pot roast burns. They may not know Agnes, but they do know her nephew Henry, and to pray for her is to pray for him. That is a positive value, and those congregations may not need to put curbs on their intercessions in any way. However, the larger congregations have a different reality. Some form of discipline seems called for. A key issue is IMMEDIACY. When one asks for a friend or relative to be included in the prayers of the people, one really ought to be one of those people, i. e. in attendance at the Eucharist most of the time. It doesn’t seem fair to leave the congregation set on “auto-pray” indefinitely. A secondary concern is URGENCY. People can be in chronic need of prayer (aren’t we all?) for years, but in urgent need only for a few weeks or months. There are ways to keep the Prayers of the People more immediate, and more urgent. The most effective of these is to cease list-keeping altogether, and rely on participants in worship to provide their own intercessions. This was apparently the intent of the framers of BCP 1979, and many congregations could still be taught to do this comfortably. What we have found is that in a great many congregations, people are far too bashful to sing out the names of those they are praying for, even softly. They want someone else to do it. In an ancient stone church in Wales, I saw a large, wooden cross in the Narthex, with little clips on it, and a basket of paper slips and pencils nearby. Upon entering the church, worshipers were invited to write out their intercessory concerns and clip them onto the cross. The intercessor picked those up and, at the appropriate time, used them to offer the prayers of the people gathered that day. I’ve seen that done with just a small basket, too. A one-sheet list form would serve as well, and there could be many creative variations. That answers the “immediacy” question, and there is nothing to stop Henry from including Aunt Agnes anytime he is present and desires to do so. A second practice, equally important, is to request that the congregation participate in intercessory prayer outside of Eucharist as well, daily, and to provide the names of those for whom prayers are requested. That list could include not only the urgent needs, noted in the Prayers of the People, but also the more chronic ones as well. More importantly, the discipline of “praying without ceasing” greatly multiplies the prayers of the congregation, taking them beyond the Sunday celebration and into everyday life. A third point is worth raising: teach the intercessors how to offer lists of names reverently, respectfully, and—prayerfully—so that the experience is worth kneeling through for the congregation. And while you’re on your knees, thank God that you have a church congregation that considers common intercessory prayer important enough to do it, and do it well. That is a big part of what we gather as a church to do.