Prayer can take many forms.
“Prayer isn’t just asking for things. Prayer is ‘thank you’ and awe is a form of prayer,” explains Rev. Roberta Fraser from St. Stephen’s Church in West Vancouver. “Prayer can be a poem, something beautiful like a sunset, (a) sense of awe, part of something greater.”
Prayer doesn’t just have to be a request. It can be a thought of appreciation or simply an observation, she adds.
“My sense is that there are lots of people who have a sense of the spiritual, they have a sense that there is something more in life. And whether or not they are the kind of people who walk in the door on Sunday morning into a church or a synagogue or a mosque, they have a sense that there is God, in my parlance, a divine spirit, something greater. And I guess in my own tradition I would think of God as the deep listener, who wants to hear and know and experience our longings or joys.”
This summer, St. Stephen’s Church is inviting the community to express their prayers, thoughts, wishes, and observations in a somewhat public fashion.
They have loosely tied ribbons and twine to the branches of a Japanese maple just outside the main door of the church and anyone is invited to attach their prayer to the tree. A box at the foot of the tree holds paper, pens, and pencils for users to write down messages, thoughts, and prayers, and then attach them to the twine and ribbons using clothes pegs.
“The idea is that it’s kind of prayer made visible,” says Fraser. “The hope is that people in the neighbourhood will feel invited to come and add a prayer to the tree, their own prayer.”
She adds that anyone can add something of their deep longings, joys, or hopes in words, pictures or some other way, without harming the tree. All messages are welcome as long as they are respectful.
Along with written messages, someone has attached a photo of a loved one who passed away, and so far that is Fraser’s favourite item, although she has been pleased with all the offerings.
“I’ve been pleased that people have felt invited to (contribute) because that is the intention,” she says, noting if she just wanted members of the congregation to be involved they would have presented the project on a wall inside the church. “The idea of having it outside is that it is part of the wider community and you don’t have to be a Christian.”
She explains that the prayer tree is open to any prayerful intention and doesn’t have to be specifically religious.
Using a written medium is also a bit different.
Prayer is commonly thought of as being about speaking words either said out loud or in your head, notes Fraser.
“But prayer is so much bigger than that. Prayer, in some sense, is just connection with the divine however you understand that ‘greater’ to be.”
For example, meditation and music can also be forms of prayer as well, she adds.
The materials being used for the messages are naturally degradable and all the messages will be ceremoniously disposed of at the end of the summer.
In the meantime, the papers are protected quite well by the tree’s leaves and branches and so far the weather has been co-operating so rain hasn’t ruined them. But Fraser isn’t worried about nature taking its toll on the prayer tree messages. It’s just part of the greater connection.
“They wave in the wind and they’ll get rained on because they’re kind of there as part of the world.”
