Goodies

The Rattle Bag

A little book of prayers and practices which we have found to be useful, sustaining and kind. Thrown together for a people in shutdown, but with ongoing utility. To download the PDF, click here. For personal use only.

Pray at Home

• Creating a Prayer Space – In the midst of chaos, finding small spaces for prayer: here.
• The Welcoming Prayer – Stop fighting your emotions, and start feeling them: here.
• Centering Prayer – Learning to rest in the love of God: here.
• Lectio Divina (divine reading) – Inhabiting the Scriptures and letting them speak to us: here (for examples, type ‘slow reading’ in the search box).
• Sensio divina – Attending to the presence of God in creation: here.
• Lectio in creation – Prayerfully reading the Bible and creation together: here.
• The Examen – Review and reflect on each day: here.
• Walking the Neighbourhood – Looking around with God’s eyes: here.
• Write your own collect: One way to write a formal prayer: here.
• Prayer Labyrinth – Formal prayer walking: here (and instructions to make your own labyrinth are here.)
• Guided Meditation – Blooming. Download PDF: Guided Meditation – Blooming.

Inaction Planner

Mark Van Steenwyk’s Inaction Planner is a powerful tool to help you align yourself with the “unforced rhythms of grace.” Each day, you are invited to pause and reflect on what pressures you feel, what you can let go of, what you can do simply, and what would give you joy: and to let these observations guide and shape your day.

Download the whole booklet, with his introduction and three months’ work of journal pages, here. 

Download a single day planner here.

Inaction Planner, by Mark Van Steenwyck of the Centre for Prophetic Imagination (Minneapolis, MN: Mennonite Worker Press), shared here under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Simple liturgies for a shutdown church

Christ in the Carpark: Sensio divina: A simple outdoor gathering for 50 people plus a faith leader in the church carpark, with time for silent reflection. Download it here.

Carboot Communion – Manna in the Wilderness: Can God set a table in the desert? We say ‘Yes!’ Download it here. (For a small public outdoor gathering.)

Carboot Communion – Come to the Feast! (Isaiah 55): First aired in a reforested paddock, where ‘instead of thistles, manna gums grow.’ Download it here. (For a small public outdoor gathering.)

Mailbox Communion: Colossians: Strength to stick it out over the long haul. Includes study notes on Colossians for those who want to take it further. Download it here. (To do at home.)

Mailbox Communion: Manna: We grumble; God provides. Download it here. (To do at home.)

Other COVID Resources

• What is carboot communion? – Description here.
• What is mailbox communion? – Description here.
• Why don’t we do communion over Zoom?  – Read here.
• Letter to a church facing change – Read here.
• Reopening roadmap as at 14 October 2020, plus the benefits of Zoom: For a smallish regional congregation (50+ regulars) – Read here.
• Plug ‘covid’ or ‘plague’ or ‘shutdown’ into the search bar, and you’ll find plenty of sermons and reflections.

Small prayers

• Prayers for putting on a face mask – here.
• Prayers for handwashing – here and here.