Would you like to write a prayer for the United Reformed Church (URC's) Prayer Handbook 2022?

In 2022, the URC celebrates its 50th birthday, and in keeping with this special anniversary, and reflecting on the meanings of jubilee in our biblical texts, the URC's Prayer Handbook 2022 has the theme 'Jubilee: Free to live…’

Editors, Karen Campbell and Ian Fosten, invite you to consider the ways in which we experience jubilee in our everyday lives through our knowledge of God and the relationships we share with God. 

You may feel free… to praise… sing… lament… rage… grieve.  Perhaps you feel moved to give thanks for a particular event or occasion. Maybe there are situations where, on reflection, you realise it was only God’s grace which brought you through. Or perhaps the difficult time is now; today is when you are experiencing God’s liberating peace in the midst of turmoil.

Wherever you are, wherever you have been, whatever the journey which moves you to write, we would love to hear from you.       

You are invited to write as you would pray – no special words or format – and allow us the privilege of sharing your prayers with others in the URC and beyond. 

You can submit a maximum of four prayers to be considered which must be your own, original work, for which you have copyright.  Materials you have written for local church use, or prayers for private or coporate use can also be submitted for consideration,

While the prayers can draw on any relevant and topical theme, you are asked to avoid direct reference to specific/immediate events which may cause the prayers to become quickly dated. You are not asked to fit your prayers to the Lectionary or any prescribed readings.

To help with formatting, prayers should be a maximum length of 25 lines, each line having no more than 60 characters including spaces and punctuation.

Please give each prayer a title.

The editors look forward to receiving and reading all submissions, but cannot guarantee that every prayer will be included in the final handbook. Copyright for any prayers used will be held jointly between the author and the URC.

The deadline for submissions is 28 February and you will be informed by 22 March whether your prayer(s) will be included. If your prayer is to be used, we will then engage in a conversation with you as follows:   

• A first edit of your writing and its return to you will ideally be made to by 19 April for you to consider and address any suggested changes or rewriting.
• Your final re-worked version will be expected by 3 May which the Editors will then work on so that they can have the final text ready by the end of May. This early deadline is necessary to guarantee a final product ready for sale by the first autumn Synod meeting in September.

We thank you in advance for your thoughtful and prayerful writing. Submit your prayers by email to: phb@urc.org.uk

_{Published: 1 February 2021
Image: Aaron Burden/Unsplash}