The Oasis group has been meeting for two years and though we have explored many different approaches to prayer, one thing does not change from week to week. We always share a period of about half an hour’s silent prayer or meditation. The peace and refreshment that this monthly experience has given us has been a great blessing. I am glad it is on a Monday because it sets me up for the week.

In the last few years, different members of the group have led us to new and old ways of reflective prayer. Liz and Brian Dwyer have helped make us comfortable with one of the simplest and longest established forms of contemplative prayer, the Lectio Divina (or Divine Reading); Sarah Hills has showed us the calming effects of following a labyrinth and this month Kathryn Lord allowed us to construct our own meanings for a parable that she enacted with Godly Play materials.

This coming year our emphasis will be on how we pray for others. Many of us pray naturally and easily for others while some of us feel uncertain about how we do this without appearing to be writing a ‘to do’ list for God – an activity which can seem rather absurd. James is going to help us to think about and to practice intercessory prayer with the aid of a remarkable Finnish film, Letters to Father Jacob, the story of a rural priest who has spent years answering letters from people all over Finland asking him to pray for them or for a particular person – he has become the intercessor for hundreds.

Do join us in the Parish Centre on the second Monday of each month at 8 pm if you would like an hour of quiet and a chance to pray in different ways.

One of the things that has pleased us most in the last two years is that this group has always been an unpressured ‘oasis’ free of ‘I must attend’ or ‘I should attend’. Do feel free to join us but never feel you ‘ought’ to!

If you want to know more about what we do please contact me or Ruth. Our contact details are on the programme list. Mary Grover

Oasis Dates 2011 Mondays 8.00pm -9.30pm

14 February: Amnesty

14 March: Dwellings/Houses of God

11 April: God’s Comfort: Guided Meditation with Nooma DVD ‘Rain’

9 May: Centring Prayer

13 June: Praying for Others – Letters to Father Jacob DVD

11 July: Praying for Others - Intercession

8 August: Synchronicity

12 September: Transfiguration