Yesterday I went out for tea with Hazel Parsons and her husband Colin. When I became President I asked Hazel if she would consider writing Prayer for the Week for the MWiB website and I am so grateful that she agreed to this mammoth commitment.
From July the prayers will be by Denise Creed. Hazel asked if she might write for the blog. Here are her thoughts:
I have written my last four prayers and there is undoubtedly a wistfulness as this privilege comes to an end. Part of me is relieved! But mostly I know I shall look at all sorts of images and feel that a prayer is hidden within ready to be disclosed. Of course I can write it just the same, but it won’t be quite the same.
There has been something indescribably wonderful about discerning prayers which will speak in particular to women. Some of you have responded so graciously and heartwarmingly so that I realise God has been at work. We always need to remember the loyalty and generosity of so many women’s lives, men too of course, but women respond to washing hanging on the line, to mugs of tea, to broken things and to the hopes and fears of family.
When Anne invited me to write I was so excited and felt this was something wonderful and relatively easy to do. I discovered that it was exciting, but also challenging and sometimes very difficult. It is hard to write prayers to which others can respond and to ensure that a range of prayerful needs are met. If you have found echoes of God, the loving Father, the Compassionate Son and the strengthening Spirit as you have prayed them, I would ask you to give thanks and to hold Denise as she journeys along this path.
With every Blessing
Hazel
