Notes for Intercessors

An important element of our worship is to pray for the needs of the world and the worldwide church and to offer to God the concerns and thanks of the congregation.
So thank you for helping with leading intercessions during the service at St Ursula's. If you have any questions, please contact Maxine Wildhaber (076 349 40 42)

Before the Service

Mark the date of your assignment when you receive it. If you need to check later, look at the rotas page.
If you cannot be present on the day assigned, it is your duty to change with someone and notify us at rotas@stursula.ch. If you do not know who to ask, please contact Ruth Freiburghaus.

Preparing Intercessions

Prepare the intercessions in the week before your assigned date. If possible, reserve time on the Saturday to review them in the light of recent events - local and world-wide.

NB: Intercessors should not feel they have to write long eloquent prayers. It is perfectly OK to use one of the standard formats for intercessions in Common Worship with a few words added (e.g. names of specific situations to be prayed for and names of people who are sick, etc.) If you want to know more about using these forms of intercession, you can ask Helen or David.

Format

This is the "traditional" pattern used in Common Worship and elsewhere. We pray for:

1. the Church - universal, the diocese, the city, the chaplaincy
2. the world - rulers, wars, refugees, difficult situations.
3. the local community - the people we come into contact with daily and our families and friends
4. those in difficulty - people known to us who have problems or who are sick
5. the departed - praying that we, with them, may know the comfort of God's salvation

This form of intercession is from the Communion Service. The same form may be used for all service types.

Content

Please include the following:

• our bishop, Robert; ministers at St Ursula's by name: Helen, David, Archana and James
• our Junior church. Each week we pray for a short list of our young people by name - Helen will provide you with this list.
• those in our community who have asked for our prayers - Helen will provide you the current list of names. Please speak out the names clearly - these people or their relatives have asked for prayer and like to hear their names read out.
• one of the charities we support. You can find a list on our Charity and Missions page
• it has been suggested that on the Sunday nearest to a country's National Day, we pray for that country but this is optional. There is a list of National Days available.

You may like to link the intercessions to the readings or theme of the service. You can ask the preacher about this.

There are some hints for preparing intercessions, together with a list of some resources, available here.

Length

Please keep the intercessions fairly short - a maximum of four minutes, including times for personal prayers. This is around 300 words. (You may like to practise saying the intercessions very slowly with spaces to be sure of the timing).

On Sunday, before the Service

Arrive in good time and make sure the sidesperson knows you are present. If, for some reason, you are prevented from attending at the last minute please contact the sidesperson (name on the rotas page) or one of the churchwardens.

Please remember to check the Prayer Requests book in the entrance porch just before the service (people sometimes write in requests as they arrive).

During the Service

In a regular Eucharist service, the intercessions are usually directly after the Creed. If there is a change in the order of the service, it will be shown in the service sheet.

The intercessor should use a microphone so that everyone can hear and share in the prayers. Intercessors may speak from the lectern at the front of the church using the microphone attached. Alternatively a separate microphone can be provided at the back of the church. If you wish to lead the intercessions from the back of the church speak to the member of TCom on duty before the service so that he can prepare the microphone.

Take up your position promptly, but wait for the congregation to settle before you begin.

Intercessors should always speak slowly, loudly and clearly.