Christian Coffee House - Prayer/Chat thread. No rubbish church coffee allowed.

[Madhairday]

With the latest prayer thread coming to an end, we thought we would create a new thread for prayer and general chat too - we had chat threads running for years alongside prayer threads, and we thought it would be great to combine them. I try and collate some of the prayer requests from the last thread in the next few days. In the meantime, dive in! Lurkers/newbies - you are welcome to post. Feel free to start any chat subject about Christianity, church, worship etc, and do share any prayer needs.
Would love to hear from those who were on previous threads and haven't been around for a while, too. Come and let us know how you are.

Thank you @zenudist

I was trying very hard not to be insensitive and to be respectful of others beliefs but I felt really quite attacked there. People kept asking “but what about suffering?” I don’t know! I don’t have all the answers, but my faith helps me through it. Atheists don’t have all the answers either 🤔
I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has been with me through my darkest times. I would love to discuss religion in a calm civil way but it seems online it always ends up in attacks and rudeness. It’s a shame as religion and philosophy are such interesting subjects

zen it's a lovely book!

The blogs are very interesting, they really make you think, I can recommend if you gave FB following them as the daily prayer encompasses all sorts of news - including that which others may be unaware of. They've put up with a lot - I know when I mentioned them to Catholic friends they were horrified I followed them, but honestly their online ministry does the world good.

russell I had a similar experience in RL when someone got a job to work in a care home which had been opened and run by local Christian churches, all clients attended and participated in services. They were determined they could do the job without faith, and as we talked it became very apparent that they couldn't. They thought they just needed to occaisonally take someone to church, leave them and collect and that was it - reality being much different, daily prayers, prayer with clients if asked as well as needing to stay for services every Sunday sometimes other days as well depending on denomination. He became very angry at that, citing religion being responsible for all wars, suffering, abuse etc and how could I, an intelligent woman, believe such rubbish. I've rarely seen someone switch to being so angry. His wife (also extremely anti religion) told me it was just because of his early life experience in church and he'd be fine. In the end he didn't get the job - I take no pride in it but I was the reason he didn't get it. He was, and is, an excellent care worker but his feelings around faith would have been extremely unsettling for everyone (clients and staff). I later found out when a friend applied for the same job that you needed to provide a faith reference as well (from vicar at current church and was quite detailed) - he had obviously faked his

Hello, please can I join?
In answer to the survey:
Coffee ( proper) if not tea
Hymns
Organ
C of E
Although haven't been to church for a month. Missing it though, must go next week. Please pray for my son who is suffering from anxiety, particularly at night time.
Thank you.

He became very angry at that, citing religion being responsible for all wars

I have never understood this view point. Wars are fought over so many things: money, power, land/territory, world resources, food, property etc I feel like anyone who thinks without religion we’d all be peaceful clearly doesn’t know much about the character of human beings 😐

@donkeyoatey
will be praying 🙏 for your son tonight

donkey welcome!

russell me neither; The Human Condition. Everyone is capable of both good and evil. We all have choices, even if we do sometimes make the wrong ones.

Hello! I used to be on the chat thread when we were living abroad. I haven't been around so much since then but it's nice to see some familiar names on here.

We had 'Shine Jesus Shine' at church on Sunday Couldn't believe it after all the discussion here!
Also had 'Come Down O Love Divine (Down Ampney), which I'd forgotten how much I liked.

I love "come down o love devine" !!

Did anyone go to an Ash Wednesday service yesterday? It was the first time I went to one ever, was interesting. (Church was bloody freezing though, is this a form of penitence? It's usually toasty warm on a Sunday. Or am I missing the point here? Probably.)

I went to the Ash Wednesday service, I have been most years, this is the first year we have run out of service sheets, there were more people there than usual by a long way, I am not sure why.

Is anyone else following the CofE LiveLent reflections? I like the app for it asI can listen while I prepare breakfast. The booklets for it have seemingly sold out very fast, they think that is because the focus is environmental which is something a lot of people have on their hearts at the moment.

I went as I am in the choir, 8 of us present. Very long service and very cold here too. Not on purpose, our lovely rector was very apologetic. There wasn’t even much music in the service, just Psalm 51 and a few hymns. Was not my favourite service I have to admit.

@Motacilla I've got the booklet, I find it helpful to have a bit of structure. My church was suggesting something else (I forget the name but a form of daily reflection) but I like the booklet, less freeform which helps as I feel very new to this. Agree that there is a lot of focus on environmental issues at the moment.

We had two hymns, I forget which.

We are doing ‘Finding a voice’ which is based on the film ‘The King’s Speech’ It’s five sessions in small groups. It starts on Tuesday and I hope someone can get the DVD to me as I won’t be there for the film night tomorrow. At least `i hope not as I am meant to be in Leeds/Wakefield for the Hugathon and for meeting TUO. I never know whether it is right to pray for good weather....

Hello can I join in?

To answer the questions
Tea
I was brought up with Scottish metrical psalms so they have most resonance for me. Hymns can be ok or good (I really like Come down o love divine too). Really can't get on with worship songs.
No strong feelings about instruments so long as they accompany not dominate.
My roots are presbyterian but I have been going to middle of the road Anglican churches for many years now.

My main reason for posting now is to ask for prayer for my dd. She is a student at a university a long way from home and has an number of disabilities including autism and being a wheelchair user. This academic year she has developed anorexia.
She is now seeing the eating disorders service and is managing to comply with their plans but is still very far from well.
She is a member of the same church as me when she is at home and people do ask how she is. However she is clearly uncomfortable about my sharing very much of her situation so I have to be careful about what I say.
In view of this I would be very grateful for some support from an anonymous forum. Thanks

Hi @NoHaudinMaWheest I am relatively new to the thread but it is a very welcoming place, it is good to see you.

I know what you mean about sharing about our young adult children. My ds has ASD and anxiety and was for a couple of years away at university away from home, this year after various struggles (only some of which even I know) he is home and continuing his studies with the OU from here. Our church too used to ask how he was doing and it was difficult to work out what to communicate, I used to keep it vague with things like 'there seems to be a lot of pressure on the students, I pray that he knows God's peace.'

Thanks motacilla. It is a tricky position to be in. I find it easier with my son who also has ASD and OCD because he doesn't go to church so noone knows him but then they are also not so interested in him either!

@erinaceus I went to my first ever Ash Wednesday service too. It was vv cold! I think I always thought it was for hardcore Catholics and so not for me. I didn't feel like telling people at work in case they judged me! I put it as "appointment" in my diary.

It was actually quite lovely because it was my dc school mass and ds was on altar service along with the dc of all the regular churchgoers. The priest did a really random homily about repentance which he tried to get down with da kids by talking about play stations. It didn't make much sense but was a bit more interesting for children as he made us all standup and turn around.

Hello @NoHaudinMaWheest i will pray for your dd. Sounds like a tough time. Does she have a church at uni? It seems like the faith community at uni can be pretty lively but maybe cliquey?

Thanks zen. She goes to a local church in her university city. There are some other students who go but it isn't really studenty. She sings in the choir and has got to know people that way. I don't think she knows anyone well enough to confide in though and they don't have a permanent priest at the moment.

Praying for your dd too NoHaud. Being in the choir is a good way in, but it can be very difficult to open up to strangers. You don’t want to come across as ‘needy’ especially if you already have visible disabilities like being in a wheelchair.

Our rector, in the Ash Wednesday service talked about ‘the woman taken in adultery’. He did very well, showing Jesus getting down to ground level to write in the dust and standing up to show his authority etc. But what was totally missing was that the Bible talks about the WOMAN being the sinner, not the man who raped her. And I thought that the church should acknowledge that. I mean: who reported t hat Jesus said: “Go and sin no more”? There were only the two of them left. Even these days women are stoned for being raped and should the church not be more aware of that fact?

Thank you dutchoma

Welcome NoHaud. It is so hard when our young adults are going through difficulties. I have a DD at uni too with some disabilities so understand how worrying it can be. Praying for you now, especially for peace.
Lovely to see lots of people on this thread. How are you all this weekend? I've been away on a conference this week so not very active online. I finally feel like I'm properly recovering from this pneumonia at last so thanks everyone for the prayers.

I am having the most amazing weekend. Met PandaG on Friday, then TUO met me off the train and took me home to feed me. On Saturday there was the Hugathon where I met a number of people, I had already met at a previous get together or ‘only’ on the internet, then went out with TUO again. She sends her love to all. We will be going to Wakefield Cathedral this morning, then I will hopefully be able to get home. It’s been blowing a gale all night.
Very glad to hear that you have recovered enough to be at the conference MHD.

I am missing church today as I will be travelling, it’s the first one I missed since I started going again recently, feels a bit strange.

Ah well long journey ahead, plenty of time for reflecting today.

The service at Wakefield was a wonderful experience, especially since TUO was so very well known and loved there.

Glad you are getting over this illness MHD.

Dutchoma who is TUO? Good for you having a great weekend.

Today I dragged reluctant dc to mass who thought they'd done their bit going to school's ash Wednesday mass. They were annoyed that I said it didn't count as Sunday mass. Then my heart sank to hear priest say "I have a letter from the bishop". Always the height of boredom for a child. I handed ds a pen and scooted the newsletter wordsearch in his direction, younger ds had a book with him . I am trying to not have them hate church with a passion. At the end ds2 (6) (having been in sunday school then reading a wholly unreligious book) comes out with "I love God", bless him.