Out for tea

Thomas Buxton Changing culture - these words are buzzing around our Diocese at the moment. You hear them in safeguarding and in senior leadership meetings and they offer an intriguing insight into where we might go and perhaps how we might go. This morning I met with the good people of St Andrew’s Earls Colne for their Harvest Service. After taking their service I was given a little booklet on the history of the church. This often happens, but rarely have I read one that was so interesting. It’s here that I read an article about Quaint, Honest Abraham, a memorial to an Earls Colne gamekeeper.    Abraham Plaistow was known to be of humble station, quaint, honest, simple-hearted and "to all our village dear". The Buxton family, together with young son Thomas, moved to Earls Colne in the late eighteenth century. Young Thomas was known as “daring, violent and domineering of temper” and he fell under the influence of Abraham, eventually becoming a reformed character.

This week I met a delightful man who said he wasn't religious. For most of his life he dug graves or tended to graveyards. That was his job. Now that he's retired he looks after his local churchyard. It's immaculate! He does it so that it will look nice for those paying their respects.  He's not religious but he does pray. He told me he prays this prayer throughout each day. He knows it by heart and keeps a copy in the drawer where he keeps his wallet and phone. He prays throughout the day and every time he opens the drawer to get his phone or wallet, he sees the prayer, he says the prayer.  Dearest Lord,  teach me to be generous; teach me to serve You as You deserve; to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and not to ask for reward save that of knowing I am doing Your Will. The prayer is generally attributed to Ignatius, Whether he wrote it or not, we don't know.

Here's a resource I've been using in schools and churches and in training sessions for a few years now. I can't remember where I fist saw this but many thanks to whoever first thought it up. I've added some of my own actions to replace those I've forgotten. It's been used in schools where there are more than 50 native languages, with KS1 children who find the vocabulary difficult to access and with a number of schools who have asked for help in teaching prayer. I've used it in Sunday worship, informal church and in work with leadership groups. It brings a different dimension to a prayer that has brought security, comfort, vision and perspective for centuries. Try it out, see if it works for you, think about making up your own actions or work with a school council or worship team to create your own interpretation.