Goldie - designing and implementing a device for prayer for an enclosed order of nuns.
Many thanks to Claire Bailey-Ross who brought my attention to this paper about Goldie - The Prayer Companion developed for the Community of Poor Clares "in a northern city" some years ago. The paper is a great read - full of serendipitous theology and lots of practical points about design and spirituality. I love the section in particular where the nuns complain about the "I feels", a selection of messages about how people feel rather than about news concerns for prayer. I think the decision to cut these down rather than cut them out was important. Sometimes the news needs some added relief.
I wonder whether this might work for other situations too - like a prayer room, a boiler room for 24/7 prayer or a pioneer church situation. Gathering the world's concerns for prayer seems like a good thing to do rather than always relying on one media source or one's own imagination or perhaps even guidance by the Holy Spirit?
The full paper is here: http://www.gold.ac.uk/media/The%20Prayer%20Companion-1.pdf
What do you think?
Pete
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