Prayer Spaces in London SchoolsPhil Togwell - 29 May 2011

This was the fourth Prayer Space week that we’ve hosted in Frances Bardsley School for Girls… and about the twelfth we’ve hosted so far in this area of Greater London. And I’m amazed at the stories that have come out from every single one.

I still haven’t got used to the impact that these simple, sacred, reflective, prayer (whatever you want to call them) spaces are. Let’s face it, they’re just re-arranged classrooms, pleasantly lit, filled with creative ‘stuff’ – mostly post-it notes and torn up cardboard (at least in the ones I’ve been involved with, my friend Rach Warwick is a bit more hi-tech with hers!) and a few instructions/invitations to participate.

I think the participation is the thing that amazes and puzzles me most. It shouldn’t but it does. When a class of mischievous year 10s who have been mostly muttering and giggling throughout our pre-amble presentation then goes and engages fully with the prayer stations it always amazes and puzzles me. And this week at Frances Bardsley was no exception.

We had some difficulties at the start. The long-planned timetable of classes coming to the room for their R.E. lessons got cancelled at the last minute – we’re still not entirely sure why – which left us hosting just three classes, lots of ‘free periods’, and then open-to-all during breaks and lunchtimes.

But what was (possibly?) meant for bad turned out good, like rogue/rough threads woven into a tapestry. During almost every ‘free period’ we had sixth form students coming in to talk and pray about hopes and fears and faith and exams, etc.

Like A, who came back day after day, mainly to talk with one of our team, Emma. At the end of the week she told Emma that for the first time, she’d woken up feeling that she could be herself, that she didn’t have to pretend. She attributed this *entirely* to her experiences in the Prayer Space, and she asked if she could visit Emma’s church that Sunday. (She did, by the way.)

And like C, who sat for a long time at the Forgiveness Zone (see below), in front of the bowl of water after the MP3 track had ended, with tears in her eyes. “It’s taken me three years to let go of that hurt,” she whispered to me.

Carla Taylor, who leads Prayer Spaces in Schools teams into schools in Thurrock told me last week about a teacher who kept ducking in and out of the classroom/Prayer Space, clearly trying not to give in to the tears that wanted to come. “You’re asking my students to do things that I don’t think I’m prepared to do?”

Why do we do this stuff? To make a space of welcome, where hearts and souls can connect with, and receive from, Abba Father, the God who made us and who cares deeply for us.

For more stories and some pictures of Prayer Spaces in Schools visit the 24-7 UK website. To find out what all the fuss is about, exactly how these amazing Prayer Rooms in schools work see www.PrayerSpacesInSchools.com