“Let Us Pray… anywhere?” is a research project into the prayer habits of children led by Hereford Diocese Education Team. The partnership project involves seven Church of England primary schools and their local churches. The aim of the project is about trying to build a better understanding of children’s prayer life and spirituality. The project supports children to explore how their local church and church school can encourage and help them develop a prayer life beyond the school setting.
The idea developed from a series of conversations between churches and schools exploring some of the excellent work from the Faith in the Nexus project and Together for our Children education conferences hosted by the diocese education team.
The seven schools involved are Cradley CE Primary and Christchurch CE Primary (Cressage), Kingsland CE Primary, Lydbury North CE Primary, St Laurence CE Primary, Ludlow and Stottesdon CE Primary. Staff from these schools and representatives from the local churches have supported the project over the last 12 months.
The project launched in October 2022. It began with small groups of children from the seven schools being interviewed about their prayer experiences at home, school and church. The initial conversations helped the team develop and trial various school and church resources. The team will revisit the schools, listening to the individual experiences and how they have developed to see what impact the resources may have had on supporting children to develop prayer habits.
The project's findings are expected to be available for publication later this December. It is expected to include video testimony from the children involved in the project and a set of recommendations for further work to nurture spirituality amongst primary pupils.
Mark Harrington explains: “It has been a fantastic development during our diocesan Year of Prayer. Our initial conversations with the children were enlightening as they spoke freely about prayer. Although they are all from church schools, most do not go to church regularly as a family and aren’t engaged in the local church.
“Despite this, the children talked about valuing prayer and trying to find time alone at home to pray or reflect. We have started to call this ‘bubble time’ when they are alone with their thoughts and if they invite God to the conversation.
“We were surprised to discover that families often prayed the Lord’s Prayer at the Christmas dinner table. Several children also spoke of how God was physically with them as they prayed. There was also a lot of discussion and debate about whether prayer and reflection were the same thing.
“For many, prayer is associated with someone leading a prayer at the front of the school hall or church. They felt more comfortable discussing how they reflect and speak to God at other times.
The next round of interviews with the children will explore what has helped or hindered reflection and prayer time.
Mark concludes, “Once we’ve come to the end of this project, we plan to share what the children have taught us across the diocese and beyond as part of the national Growing Faith network.
In the words of one of the children taking part in the project: “I think there are endless things that you can do with prayers as they can go on forever with things that you can be thankful for or to stop in the world.”