A Special Prayer Station Service
Sunday, February 19 at 9:30 AM
Join us for a unique service of worship at Bay Shore Church, our annual Prayer Station Service. Our intent for this time of prayer is to offer a variety of forms of prayer for you to explore and a few different places to pray. How you choose to use this time of prayer is entirely up to you. Feel free to take part in the prayer stations that speak to you, visit them in any order, and don’t feel obligated to do everything or anything you don’t want to do. You may wish to spend some time praying in your seat too. Members of our worship commission will be on hand to host, give directions, and answer any questions you may have.
Providing music for those partaking in communion in the sanctuary and for our online worshipers, our Bay Shore Quartet Shannon Miller, Katie Moriarty, Jake Asaro and Michael Rice will be singing quartet pieces and solos where they’ll accompany themselves on guitar, piano and ukulele, and Kathryn Atkins, author, pianist, neighbor, and frequent Bay Shore visitor will be playing piano solos. Providing music during the candle lighting in the chapel will be Sam Yoon on violin, Karen Linkletter on cello and Jason McNally on piano playing solos, duets and trios.
Service of Communion
All are welcome to receive communion at Bay Shore Church. Jesus gave us this sacred meal as a way to remember him and to connect with God and each other as one Body of Christ. We will serve by intinction (dipping bread into cup). A gluten-free option is available. Feel free to come to the table to receive communion at any point during our time of prayer.
Candle Lighting
Lighting candles is a traditional, symbolic way of offering a prayer. Lighters are provided for you to light your candle. As you light a candle, you might offer a silent prayer for another person, for yourself, for another need, or simply ask for God’s light to shine into those places in our lives and in our world that are in need of light, love, healing, etc. You are also welcome to enjoy the Ensley Meditation Garden.
Color a Prayer
Have you ever colored a prayer or drawn a prayer? Creative expression in any form can become an act of prayer when done with intention and openness to the Holy Spirit. It can also be a way to quiet and focus our minds. You can write names or words too if you wish. If you don’t finish, no problem. You may take your prayers with you.
Prayers for the World
We invite you to write or draw a prayer for the world on a sticky note (for peace, for care of creation, for equity and inclusion of all God’s people, for a specific place or situation in the world, and so on). Place your prayer on or around the world maps.
Sound Bath
“We begin with sound, we are held together by sound, and someday we will return to the cosmic Music of the Spheres.” – Joy Gardner Join Ceremonial Sound Bath Practitioner, Pris Munson, for a sampling of sacred tones & sonic frequencies that can elicit a felt sense of harmony and inner peace.
Cyclical Movement Prayer
Prayer isn’t only available in stillness. When we coordinate the movement of our heart, the movement of our mind, and the movement of our body, we can pray with our whole self! We invite you to join us in simple, cyclical movement and experience a fully embodied dialogue with God.
Hammer a Prayer
Prayer doesn’t always have to be quiet and calm. Sometimes we have to let go of frustrations, anger, anxiety, pent up energy, or whatever it is that we’re holding onto. We invite you to hammer a nail into wood as a cathartic prayer of release.
Columbarium
The columbarium will be open for personal prayer. Like church cemeteries, the columbarium is the final earthly resting place of many of our church members who have gone before us. The columbarium chapel is a special place to pray, especially prayers of remembrance and thanksgiving for the lives of the many saints who have blessed our lives. We invite you to take a written prayer from the bowl on the altar.