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Writers of Prayers
Beginning with the first Sunday in June, Grace will be in need of two or more new writers for the Prayers of the People found in our weekly order of worship for the 10 a.m. service when Linda Newman and Darby Puglielli retire. (Thank you both for your thoughtfully crafted prayers.)
As one last request, I asked Darby to share her process for writing the Prayers of the People in hopes that it would bring encouragement to one of our loyal readers to say, "I can do that."
From Darby:
The first time I wrote the Prayers of the People to be used during a Sunday morning service was with a group of teenagers preparing for Confirmation. We had studied the six different "forms" (see the BCP pp. 383-393 ), studied the rubric telling what had to be included in the prayers, and discussed what the Prayers of the People meant.
"The 'Prayers of the People'
is a liturgical structure for public prayer in worship."
- The Prayers of the People by Dennis Bratcher
The Prayers of the People aren't in the 1928 Prayer Book. In this version , the priest says intercessory prayers that are the same every week. Starting in 1979, the intercessory prayers were said by a lay person, sometimes actually standing in the middle of the church to represent all the people present. According to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, intercessions must be given for:
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The Universal Church, its members, and its mission
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The Nation and all in authority
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The welfare of the world
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The concerns of the local community
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Those who suffer and those in any trouble
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The departed (with commemoration of a saint when appropriate)
When I write the Prayers of the People at Grace, I have a set list of steps. I'm sure that others that write the Prayers have their own steps, but here are mine:
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Read the Scripture readings for that Sunday.
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Copy out any phrases that work for prayer.
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Find out what else is on the calendar for that Sunday: at Grace, on the national scene, on the saints calendar.
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Write the prayers, including all six of the requirements from the Book of Common Prayer, trying to use the same refrain, hopefully a line from the Scripture readings that Sunday.
There are other amazing resources as well. The Text This Week being one of my favorites.
-Darby Puglielli
If you are interested in joining the team that writes Prayers of the People, contact Jonathan Grieser at togracechurchrector@gmail.com. We would like to have new writers in place by the second week of May.
Logistics: Writers submit their Prayers of the People to Jody and Jonathan by Tuesday afternoon of the week they are to run. These prayers are then looked over by the Rector and customized with names from the current Grace prayer list. Writers on the Prayers of the People team typically take turns lasting for several weeks, depending upon the season, and then another writer takes over.
Thank you for trying your hand at the Prayers of the People. We look forward to hearing from you.
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