Sayoneforme web-based prayer service
Church of England Bishops were out among shoppers and passers-by collecting their prayers yesterday March 9 to mark Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent 2011. For the next 40 days, people across England have the opportunity to share with God their hopes and concerns, anonymously, in the form of a prayer posted at www.sayoneforme.org, a web-based prayer service.
To promote the website, the bishops collected prayers, on specially designed cards, that w ere prayed at church services later in the day. They also handed out “business cards” containing the web address www.sayoneforme.org.
Bishop David Walker of Dudley said, “Lent is a time to turn to God to tell Him about your hopes, needs and concerns – and everyone posting a prayer at sayoneforme.org will know that others are praying their prayers with them and on their behalf.”
Prayers posted online will be offered to God by various parish churches, prayer groups, and three religious communities: St. Mary’s Abbey, West Malling; St. Peter’s Convent, Woking; The Sisters of Bethany, Southsea. They also will be prayed at the retreat center Launde Abbey, Leicester, and placed on the altar at a number of cathedrals and at Westminster Abbey during church services.
Having researched the content of almost 1,000 prayers from last year’s Say One for Me initiative, Tania ap Sion, director of the St. Mary’s Centre, North Wales, said: “These prayers clearly brought hope to a number of people. Sometimes the same person visited the web site more than once – on the first occasion to ask for prayer and on the second occasion to give thanks for an answer to prayer.”
Further information about bishops taking to the streets to collect prayers this Ash Wednesday is available here.