In September 2023 Southampton House of Prayer re-grouped / re-launched.
Over early in 2023 we realised SoHOP had become more of an organising committee than a praying community. There was still a lot of prayer going on, but at the core of SoHOP we are more like a committee organising a few prayer meetings.
So in September we returned to our roots, with a refreshed vision.
Back to setting our hearts on pilgrimage
We are not settling into a fixed pattern, but remaining aware that each moment may be transient. We began in 2017 with a strong emphasis on pilgrimage. Journeying towards God every day. We are preparing ourselves to continuing journeying. We are adopting a posture of humility and expectation that God will show the next step, and the next step, and the next step. With our hearts set on pilgrimage, we will discern what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. One of us had a picture of a gorilla with a massive bunch of bananas, leaving them everywhere. This encourages us to keep seeking God’s presence – if we follow his presence we will be ok.
Being a catalyst
Being a catalyst is something we have thought about SoHOP in the past. A catalyst helps a reaction happen more readily than it would have without it. A catalyst has to be of the right material. So we have to be a praying community, led by the Holy Spirit, pioneering in prayer, being what we are called to see. We can try to resource churches to pray in more creative ways. Can we do this more regularly and draw in new people to experience it?
Personal/corporate rhythm of prayer
As a community we have a commitment to each developing our daily rhythm of prayer. We meet together once a week, but we will all develop a personal daily rhythm of prayer. The rhythm we each develop may be slightly different as it depends on our personal circumstances.
Young people
We want to see young people inspired in prayer. They bring fresh energy, fire, spark, zeal. They are also a catalyst. We will continue to pray for this.
Creative
We expect to be praying in all kinds of ways. We hope not to be praying in the same kinds of ways each time we meet.
A place/space for prayer
We feel that spaces set aside for prayer are very important and we would like to host such a space ourselves where we can outwork our creativity. We don’t know any more about this yet, but perhaps there are opportunities to partner with churches who are setting up prayer spaces?
Prayer walking
This is a feature of our journey so far, and a way to join with others. We will keep this in mind.
Practical Details for September
We have chosen Wednesday as our day to meet. Sorry if this is inconvenient for you.
We meet to eat, pray and learn each Wednesday at 7pm.
We are very excited to be hosted by New Community Church Sholing (77 St Monica Road, SO19 2ES). It’s a good story how we arrived here. At a festival called Wildfires, Sally and Elaine bumped into Clive and Jane Wiseman who run a church called New Community Sholing, and who told them about their new building – a historic little place most recently owned by the Elim church in Sholing, but now leased to New Community. Their vision is for it to be a place of encountering God in prayer and worship. So when we later asked them if we could use it, they were really pleased.
Meeting dates/times
The SoHOP leaders are on a rota to coordinate the meeting each week and we will involve others in the community in preparing our prayer activities. The emphasis is discerning what God wants us to do.
We have a shared meal at 7.00pm every week (except for the info evening).
Sept 13 (Jim and Sally)
Sept 20 (Elaine and Richard)
Sept 27 (Fran and Jim)
Oct 4 (Fran and Richard)
Oct 11 (Elaine and Sally)
Please spread the word and pray for people to hear about this new vision/fresh start, and come to join us. You can use this flyer as an invite: