Have we prayed about it? Would you like to pray about it with me?

I think a lot about Art Lester's anniversary sermon in 2008, especially since Art died last year.

In it he talks about the problems of the declining Unitarian denomination (that has only declined further since 2008) and asks us a simple question - have we prayed about it?

And he suggests that if we haven't prayed about it, and if we have stopped viewing God as someone you can really talk to, then this might point to the very cause of our decline. We are not nourishing the soul.

And so the most important thing we could possibly do - is pray, is to recognise our need for a Higher Power, and invite the Living Presence into our midst.

When I was asked recently on a podcast what's the one thing I would change about Unitarianism I said - "I just want us to pray more." Someone later challenged me - what would it mean to make that happen? How could it happen?

I've pondered on that for a few months. And I think how it could happen is to gather those who would like to join me being a community of prayer, a community that want to make a commitment to regular prayer in their lives, a dispersed community, not in the same place, but who want to pray alone, and occasionally together.

A community for those who want to opt in - to pray and recognise their need for God.

Something like a "tertiary order" of praying Unitarians. Tertiary orders are like monks and nuns who don't live in a monastery but live their own lives in the world, but following a specific rule of life and pattern of prayer. My dad is a tertiary Franciscan and we always joked in our family that it was like being a "half monk."

What would a praying tertiary order of Unitarians look like? I'm not sure and there are all kinds of things that would have to be worked out, but it could evolve slowly, organically. I imagine there would be a commitment to pray individually with occasional coming together for retreats. I wouldn't want to define theology too tightly but it would be consciously and joyfully God-centred. Art's sermon is as good a starting point as any.

So as a first step I'm putting it out there - would you like to join me in this commitment to prayer? Would you like to do something that answers Art Lester's challenge to us all those years ago? Shall we pray?

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