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Constituency Prayer Groups |
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Written by Mark Williams MP
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Saturday, 29 December 2007 |
Mark Williams MP talks about the invaluable support and encouragement he receives from his constituency prayer group.
It all seems a long time ago now. Shortly after my election, I received a speculative letter from an old political adversary, an ex-Plaid Cymru County Councillor, inviting me to a Prayer Group meeting in Aberystwyth. He has himself been inspired by Steve Webb at a National Prayer Breakfast in London. And so it all started, our monthly meetings in St Michaels’s Church in Aberystwyth.
My first reaction was to feel immensely moved that a group of my constituents, of different backgrounds and walks of life, would be praying each month or me and for my work, for my family in my absence each week in London, and for guidance.
The second feeling was an overwhelming desire to not become a bystander, but an active participant myself. And so in addition to our family’s church in my home village each Sunday, the monthly meetings in St Michael’s have become an important part of my diary.
It’s a small group, rarely more than five or six. We meet at 8:30, on the third Saturday of each month, enabling me to do the ballet run for my daughters, and the other younger members to be with their families too.
We talk on a theme each time – the housing crisis; the challenges of global warming or 3rd world poverty. And then we pray together and for each other, and for guidance.
My old Plaid Cymru adversary, a firm friend, tells me I need not come each month, as my constituency diary is surely too full, a few times each year is sufficient. On those busy weekends, he is right, my absence is something I deeply regret, and the support from my Prayer group immeasurable.
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