Welcome to our Baptist Assembly Prayer Space

Whether you are with us in Harrogate, or you have
found your way to this page online, you are invited
to be part of our rhythm of prayer as our Assembly helps
us explore our call to be Baptists Together.

This year, we are using two episodes from the life of Samuel to help us reflect on three questions together:

What is God saying to me?

What is God saying to my church?

What is God saying to our Baptist Community?

We gather amidst a world that is wracked with uncertainty and conflict. Yet we dare to believe
that God can speak through every human circumstance.





Samuel 3:1-10 reminds us that we do not always recognise the voice
of God immediately. Yet God continues to call, sometimes through new people and
in new ways.

'The Lord came and stood there, calling as at other times 'Samuel! Samnuel!'

Where are you speaking O Lord?
What are the voices that I hear,
But have not yet learned to listen to?
What familiar things do I need to embrace anew?
What new horizons should I be willing to explore?

Even when your Divine voice rings clear,
We might not notice, we might not understand.
Yet you patiently call, and call again.
So help me tune my heart to your heart
To find space in my crowded life to stop and simply listen to you;
To disregard those voices that seek to drown out yours.
Make my eyes and ears attentive to you.



Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel,
'Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.''

Even the priest was slow to understand,
But to him remained the task
Of maintaining space for God's voice to be heard,
For the light of God’s presence is never extinguished.

With time he learned to recognise that God was speaking anew.
Not through expected and familiar channels,
But through a new generation;
An untrained hearer;
A disturber of his slumber.

So as we gather with one another,
May we each play our part
In helping others to hear your voice,
In listening together,
That we might hear your will for us, your people,
Speaking in ways known and ways yet to be discovered.



1 Samuel 16:1-10 recounts how with the wisdom of years and the scars of experience,
the boy prophet heard the voice of God again - speaking at a moment of new beginning,
new opportunity, yet requiring obedience and courage in pursuit of its fulfilment.

How long will you mourn for an era now passed?
How long will you cling to desires of your making,
When my voice is calling for their release?
And even as you acknowledge and embrace my purpose anew,
What assumptions must be laid down,
Before my anointing can bring about new beginnings?

So help us O God,
To hear you speaking into our life together.
Strengthen the bonds between us,
That our churches and communities,
Can be all that you intend them to be.

In our coming together,
Equip and inspire us,
That we might be those
Who convey your words of hope, of purpose and challenge,
To those on whose behalf we gather.

Speak to us we pray
In every place that we gather as Baptists Together.
Show us those things that we need to release
And those that we need to grasp with renewed resolve,
That we might embrace your purposes for our future.



If you are at Assembly, please find time to reflect and consider how God might be
speaking to you. You might like to visit our prayer space in the Convention Centre
to share your thoughts and reflections.


We are also inviting our Baptist community to come together in prayer on Sunday morning
You can find out more through this link