Two Week Notice
Join A Thousand at Prayer for the Anglican Communion
“Proxy Prayer” on a night during the first half of the decadal Lambeth Conference,
20 July to 4 August, 2008
Premise: Proxy Prayer is essentially intercessory prayer, but specifically where a small group of intercessors lays on hands on a person prepared to stand in on behalf of another person (or group, or event, etc.), thus the proxy.
Background: At St. John’s, Tulare, California, on September 25, 2005, members of the parish put into action what the Rector had introduced to the parish as “Proxy Prayer”, in this case where each person so identified as the proxy came prepared to identify at least 5 critical issues for one of numerous cities and towns affected by Hurricane Katrina, and then Hurricane Rita, as well. The event was webcast to a small audience, photos were taken of each proxy and “their” community and posted to the parish website, three different types of images (satellite photo, weather report images, communities pinpointed on USA map) of the hurricanes at their worst over the land were projected onto a pull down screen in the chancel to provide a constant reference. The initial small prayer groups (4) were made up of known, Holy Spirit-gifted intercessors from other denominational and non-denominational churches in town, and other area Episcopal churches.
The framework for that evening was Evening Prayer, and the bishop attended, having been invited to speak on “The Mission of the Church”, and the actual Proxy Prayer took place at the end of the service, as provided by the rubrics.
Results: The event was extremely successful on many different levels. It brought a profound spiritual benefit to the proxies, having studied their communities, nearly all of them having had personal contact with at least one person in those communities by email or even phone, and then allowing themselves to be vessels of God’s grace during the time of prayer. The prayer also brought tangible results, as follow-up communications discovered answers to many of the prayers, a few extremely timely even for that evening. As well, when the proxies were grouped as new intercessory groups ready to pray for another proxy, many people experienced new confidence as ministers of prayer, sometimes being moved even greater while they were praying for others than they experienced when they had just been a proxy. Some came not expecting much at all, and walked away shaking their heads at having witnessed a powerful move of the Holy Spirit during the evening.
Preparation: Plenty of announcements were made for the time frame for the evening, including media alerts to newspapers, radio and TV.
A newsprint list, propped up on a tripod, with the names of each of the communities affected by the hurricane (Rita came along after the first round of preparations had already been made) allowed individuals to decide which community they wanted to pray for. Those who had lived along the Gulf Coast, or who visited relatives, or just had memorable travels there were quick to pick their favorite places (we broke New Orleans down into quarters). When time was becoming of an essence for the personal research necessary, the Rector sent out an email and flyer with the names of the remaining communities with instructions to have those interested respond immediately. When Rita hit, the Rector simply assigned individuals to the new group of communities, or doubled up someone who had already signed up. There were over twenty proxies with absences and a couple of assignments “at the door” by the time Evening Prayer began that night.
Each proxy was given two clip-on name tags with the name of the community they were standing in for – one tag for the front, and one tag for display on their back. This dual tag system allowed for photographs and webcam pix which got posted during the evening. In case anyone from those communities were watching along, they would know exactly when their community was being prayed for.
In the case of the Anglican Communion Proxy Prayer, there would be one proxy for each of the 38 Provinces around the world (the Church of England, the Province of the Middle East, the Church of Uganda, the Nippon Sei Ko Kei, etc.).
Implementation of the Proxy Prayer itself:
At the beginning of the prayer time, the recognized intercessors from outside the Parish were invited to come forward to the chancel and move into 4 small groups of 3 persons each, and station themselves equidistant from each other in the choir and sanctuary. The Rector then pointed to 4 proxies to each go to a prayer group separately for laying on of hands. These 4 were particularly selected as those who also had experience as intercessors themselves, especially capable of working with others in a small prayer group, the reason for that to be made clear shortly.
As the proxy came to a group, introductions were made, if someone was unknown to another. The proxy then shared their researched list (written down on paper) of at least 5 critical issues for the community they were representing. The prayer group then laid on hands, and began by invoking the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, asking for specific revelation from the Lord for that community. Any words of knowledge, or prophecy, or images or visions for prayer were taken care of first as objects of prayer and sharing themselves. Then followed prayers for each of the listed concerns (unless already brought up in prayer by the Holy Spirit).
After completing the prayers for a community through the proxy, the proxy now became a small group member, pulling off one of the original small group members as well. This makes two groups of two; as soon as another prayer group is finished, the proxy and an original members go to one of the two-person groups to make 3 in each. This method provided for an ever-increasing number of prayer groups, allowing successively more proxies able to be prayed for at one time.
For the Anglican Communion Proxy Prayer time, with each proxy receiving approximately 5 minutes of prayer, with 4, then 8, then 12 to 16, then perhaps 18 to 20 groups praying at one time, there would be an estimated time allowance of 30 to 45 minutes.
Order of service: Evening Prayer was read, which, minus sermon and the intercessory prayers, takes approximately 20 minutes, unless you add in some music for singing, which we did for the Katrina/Rita Proxy Prayer night. The bishop’s address was a good 30 to 40 minutes. Adding in the Proxy Prayer time itself, the whole service and prayers lasted nearly 2 hours.
The propers for the service were taken from the Daily Office lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer for St. John the Apostle (the Orthodox celebrate the day at the end of September, and that works as our patronal festival weekend). The parish organist and the rector provided background music with organ and guitar during the Proxy Prayer time.
Goal for Proxy Prayer during Lambeth: To be a thousand in common prayer at least one day during Lambeth, and during the first week. Our goal is to invite and encourage parishes and missions around the Anglican Communion (whether Anglican or not) to organize their own Proxy Prayer time focused on the Anglican Communion Provinces, preferably all praying initially on the same day, or at least on one day during the first week, so that there are at least 25 congregations involved, which would calculate to be at the least approximately one thousand (1000) people in common prayer.
The purpose of praying on one of the days during the first week is to allow for immediate responses and effects of those prayers to be evidenced at Lambeth Conference, and thus allowing for even more prayer by the proxies (either as a group again, or on their own) to follow-up while Lambeth Conference is still meeting.
Due to the demands of Vacation Bible School starting July 21st, St. John’s, Tulare, will hold their Proxy Prayer for Lambeth on Sunday, July 27th, effectively the end of the first week.
Resource for materials: For our parish prayers for the hurricane victims and communities, each of the proxies had to do research from scratch, making use of internet stories and maps and community histories, as well as following through on contacts provided by the rector or through their own connections with individuals in those communities.
Recording and Live media: We encourage all Proxy Prayer times to be recorded by photographs, sound recordings, video recordings, and web files or live on the web, for the sake of the congregation, but moreso to provide to the Provinces prayed for as encouragement and witness. For live webcasts, we suggest communicating with www.anglicantv.org which this kind of webcasting down to an art and ministry.
For Anglican Communion Proxy Prayer, a great wealth of information about the Provinces and their primary archbishops or presiding bishops can be found at the Anglican Communion website, or at the Lent & Beyond weblog anglicanprayer.wordpress.com where Primatial profiles were created by the administrators of that weblog. Make use of clergy contacts, and the internet weblogs and websites. Check www.anglican.org for a list of Provincial websites.
Contact stjohnstulare@yahoo.com or call 559-686-8048 to inform us of your intention to organize a Proxy Prayer time for Lambeth, and/or for further assistance and clarification. Ask for the rector, the Rev. Robert Eaton, or for one of the Proxy Prayer organizers.
