Prayer spaces in schools sweeps the UK

"I wasn't expecting this!" said Sam, the school chaplain, barely able to contain his excitement. "I think this could completely change my role in the school!" Last week, Sam and his small team of volunteers hosted their first Prayer Space in a secondary school not far from where I live in Romford, and I called him on Wednesday just to ask how things were going.

It's been amazing, really amazing, classes that we'd been warned would be disruptive have been fine... we even had some boys sitting in the prayer room reading a Bible verse together today. And one of the assistant head teachers brought his class in for a session today - he's been saying recently that there's already too much 'Christianity' in the school - well, he told me that this was one of the best Religious Education presentations he's ever experienced!

But Sam's story isn't particularly unusual. A growing number of schools around the United Kingdom, both primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools, church-connected and un-connected schools, are hosting these simple, creative Prayer Spaces. Most of them run for a whole week in one classroom, with children and students visiting during their lesson-time, and then voluntarily during break and lunchtimes. Some of the Prayer Spaces just run for a day, perhaps as part of an educational taster/experience day. And some have lasted longer than a week. In fact we're hearing of more and more schools that are figuring out ways to set up some kind of permanent Prayer Space. The only really common theme is how enthusiastic everyone seems to be about them.

It has really helped me just to think about God more." - Primary school child, Farnham

I’ve never seen prayer displayed or experienced like this before. It’s made me realise how many different ways prayer can be appreciated. It’s opened up religion into my life again. Thank you!"  - 16 year old, Romford

As you'll probably know, 24-7 Prayer Rooms have been hosted in some pretty weird and wonderful places over the last ten years... in a brewery in Missouri, the Houses of Parliament in London, in festival tents and shopping malls (even in some church buildings!). As far as we're aware though, it wasn't until 2008 that anyone had hosted a creative Prayer Room in a school. And then, like the proverbial English buses, a whole bunch of them came along all at once... in a tiny Northumberland village called Ryton, in the birth-home of 24-7 prayer in Chichester, in the ancient Roman town of Colchester, in Farnham (which became the Orison project), and then where I live in Romford.

I remember taking my daughter to the induction evening at her new secondary school in June 2008, where the Head of the Sixth Form came and introduced herself. "Hello! Are you Phil Togwell? Do you work with 24-7 prayer? I've read Pete Grieg's book, 'Red Moon Rising' and I love the idea of a prayer room. Do you think we can do a prayer room in the school here?" I felt like Ezekiel being shown the valley of dry bones and being asked if these bones could live. "Erm... can we do a prayer room in a school? I have no idea. You alone know the answer to that!" But five months later we hosted our first Prayer Space in my daughter's school in Romford. (And as I type this, some of my friends are hosting the ninth Prayer Space in our Borough, across five secondary schools so far.)

From what we know, there were six Prayer Spaces in Schools during 2008. And then in 2009, as the stories and the ideas spread, this number doubled to twelve. A small group of us worked hard to connect with those who were hosting the Prayer Spaces, to swap ideas and learn together, to develop 'good practice', to pray like crazy and to try and figure out - if this is something that God is doing, what do we do about it?

To start with, we pulled a simple resource pack together based around our experiences so far... it had a list and pictures of tried-and-tested prayer stations, quotes from students and teachers, links to stories and reports from previous Prayer Space weeks, pages of how-to-do-this guidelines and recommendations, and a rough R.S. lesson-plan based around prayer. Already in 2010, since making this pack available, more than fifty new Prayer Spaces have been hosted around the UK... and it seems like this is just the beginning. Conversations with education advisors, and with Christian organisations, have shifted quickly from; "Which school next?" to; "How do we grow this into every school in our Borough/area/county?" God is up to something in our schools.

So why are these Prayer Spaces in Schools working? Why are they popular?

Amongst many other reasons, I think it's something to do with the emphasis on reflection, and the time and space and encouragement to do so. In our too-busy lives, we rarely stop, look, listen and think about what's going on around us... nor to what is going on within us. People of faith and no-faith are alike in burying their questions, the doubts, hopes and fears that life inevitably presents. Questions about purpose and suffering and love and life itself. We all need to engage with these questions, but few of us do. Perhaps, these Prayer Spaces provide a little bit of that rare space to pray our questions... and sometimes begin to receive some answers. Even if the 'answer' is simply the grace to accept the question.

Tim Abbott, team leader with Sanctum in Colchester, and part of our Prayer Spaces in Schools team puts it like this:

Young people often seem to be fleetingly aware of their spiritual nature and with an occasional inclination to prayer, but lack the language, a place and a way to express it. We’ve found that a prayer space gives pupils a way of reflecting on profound spiritual and emotional experiences in a way that makes sense to them and for some, connects them with an experience of the presence of God.

Kilde: Prayer International.uk