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PATTERNS OF PRAYER

Charles Mitchell-Innes, Vicar of the Close (Thursday 1st November 2007)

Around the first week in September as the schools in The Close returned to another academic year, I have had to admit to a strange mixture of feelings. It was odd not to be part of this annual cycle, which has defined the rhythm of my life for more years than I care to mention. But it was also exhilarating not to be tied to a school timetable. The working day is now marked by the regular pattern of services in this Cathedral, which continue its unbroken tradition of worship from the earliest days. Apart from the markers, I now set my own timetable: it is a useful self – discipline. The collegiality, verve and humour of a school community have their exact counterparts, I have found, in the fellowship and stimulation of Close and Cathedral. For most of us, interaction with others- especially friends and colleagues – is a crucial part of our existence, which we balance with our home and private lives. The same is true of our worship. Although there are few people who are called to a solitary prayer, like St Antony of Egypt, one of the earliest of the hermits, and although the physical circumstances of some prevent them from worshipping along with others, communal worship has always been at the heart of the Christian life. And at the centre of that is the Eucharist by nature a shared experience of the living Christ. We are indeed fortunate to have available to us in this Cathedral a daily celebration of Communion, where we may encounter God in fellowship with others. We are also blessed in the singing or saying of Evensong each day, a reflective service of timeless beauty, in which all may make an individual response within the gathered congregation. The pattern of these times of prayer and stillness can, if we will let them, become an integral part of the rhythm of our lives.

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