Goodbye to Praying in Colour

The "Praying in Colour" prayer station has been up from 25th Oct to today, 28th November - 5 weeks in all.

Lots of prayer ribbons have been tied on to the string coming from the cross. It's not obvious whether people were using the different colours for different meanings.

The Paris attacks happened during this period and, following a gathering of people of different faiths and none, a French flag was positioned at the side of the prayer space. The red and blue ribbons ran out and I would have liked to have added white ribbons to symbolise peace but didn't manage to find time to do that.

Overall, there has been a good engagement with this prayer station, starting with Messy Church and providing a focus for those praying for Paris and the wider world.

Autumn Prayers review

The prayer station has been up for one week and there have been some compliments from people visiting the church but not many interactions.

As I said in the last post, there are some issues that need addressing.

1. There needs to be a clear title so that people can know what they might be looking at - this has been added.
2. The sticks and "cobwebs" are difficult to see against the dark wood panelling and the green plastic leaves (made from water bottles) actually disappear!  This needs to be thought through for the next installation.
3. Although the dais defines the prayer area, people seem unwilling to step up on it.  I think this is exasperated by the positioning of the 2 tables.  I'll look at whether they can be easily re-positioned this week.
4. The suggestions for interacting and the baskets of leaves for peoples' prayers need to be more visible and within easy reach.  Again, I'll look at that this week.
5. The side chapel is a good place for privacy and quiet but it also makes it hard for people to be aware of it. We need to somehow have visible pointers that are also unobtrusive during normal services...

Any helpful comments & suggestions are very welcome.  Either write them below or contact me directly.