arranged for a phone to be installed in your home so you could pick it up any time—free of charge of course—and speak to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. I realise that it is never going to happen and so you have never probably thought about it. BUT…….actually something far better than that has happened, you have—with no need of phone and with no charge at all, the ability to have a conversation whenever you want with the King of kings and Lord of lords, with God through Jesus empowered by the Spirit. How often do you take up that invitation I wonder, and when you do how much time do you spend listening rather than talking. Silence is a great blessing. Someone in Nazareth commented after I had led the worship there last Sunday  how nice it was to have some silence and quiet to be able to listen. ‘Silence is golden’ as the Tremeloes sang in 1967, but how often do we give that silence a go, give God a ‘golden space’ into which to speak, as a thought that enters our heads, as a picture or image that enters our minds, as a word spoken by someone else into our lives. That silence is a time when God can and will bless us, please let us give Him a chance, make some space in our prayer. For prayer is vital, it is the powerhouse of the Church and thank you all for your prayers for our ministry here in LBA.

Prayer makes a difference, changes things around your life and my life included and the life of God’s Church here too. So I am thrilled that we as ministers are meeting ecumenically every Thursday morning for an hour to pray together and let God speak to us together so that we may work together, walk hand in hand, work side by side as the song ‘We are one in the Spirit tells us.

So please pray!

With my love and prayers Stephen

 * The 12 noon alarm reminds me to join in with millions of other Christians all of whom pray the Lord’s Prayer at midday wherever in the world they are. So the Lord’s prayer is being said hour by hour around the world. Please join us.1