The Windermere Centre Prayer

This prayer was used at the dedication of the Windermere Centre in 1986, by Graham Cook, the first Director of the Centre, and the hopes it expresses remain at the heart of our mission today.

 

Lord God,
heaven and earth cannot contain you,
much less this place
which our imagination has conceived and our money has built.
But we come now to pray that you will use it
to fulfil some part of your purposes.

You are the centre, Lord God,
the heart of all that exists.
It is your breath which gives life.
It is your love which gives meaning.

You are the centre, Lord God.
It is toward you that all seekers after truth walk,
no matter where they start from,
and in travelling toward you they move closer to each other.

You are the centre, Lord God.
You are the focal point of all history.
When you became human in Jesus
and suffered at the hands of powerful and holy people,
all who have ever been poor, or hungry, or hurt discover
that they share with you the pain of recreating the world.

We have dared to call this place a centre,
for here we long for your name to be known,
your Word to be discovered,
your truth acted upon:
‘What is heaven to me with you
And where am I on earth if you are not there?
Far away from you life is not life.
To break faith with you is to be no-one.’

So let it be a centre,
a place to which all truth can come
and find itself at home;
a place where faith is fearless,
and finds itself constantly standing on new ground
and discovering it to be holy;
a place in which stories are told, laughter is heard, and tears are dried;
a place in which new directions are found,
fresh words are rolled around the tongue,
new ways of praying are tested and found to be satisfying.

Here let new community be created,
tools be tested for the creation of new life
for this nation and the world
and windows be opened into your Kingdom.

You are the centre of all things, Lord God,
and today we dedicate this place to you.
So let it be at the centre of all that matters,
not tip-toeing around the edges of controversy,
trying to build bridges over troubled waters,
but standing with you at the heart of the storm;
not standing on the edges of human life
looking for pretty and pious things
with which to decorate emptiness,
but with men and women and their communities
as they struggle to find new life, new purposes, and real joy.

Lord God,
behold the thing we have created.
Take it
and make it yours.

We ask it in the name of Jesus.

Amen.