WDOP

World Day of Prayer is a day set aside by churches all over the world to come together to learn about a country and the issues that the vulnerable in that country face. The women of the country chosen write the service that all churches holding this event will use and it includes short statements representing the hardships and prayers of those people.

Each area has a host church which gathers together other churches to join in planning this event. There is a leaders resource book which tells about the country, suggestions for a festival day to teach others about the country and even recipes to make from that country.

Sadly, this is one of the biggest wastes of my time so far this year (hey, we are only in January). I went to our local meeting where the information was handed out and upon announcing the country that is being represented we immediately went straight to the service details - and decided who would do which of the speaking parts. That being settled we finished our cups of tea and cookies, picked our next meeting date and went home.

No prayer. No discussion about the country (we can read that at home I guess), no discussion about how to advertise this (why bother, our churches already know about it) and certainly nothing as labourious as planning to serve a few dishes from the recipes.

This is one example of how church becomes irrelevant. The task at hand is far more important then the reason for it. The women who come together for this event have done it for years and they take pride in continuing to take part though the younger people don't seem interested. They are doing what they have always done and getting the job done is the goal. Even within the team there is a lack of nurture - we stated our names and which church we are from and that was the extent of actually being in fellowship.

There was a lament last year that younger people don't seem to be interested. By younger we are talking about someone under 40 - I was the youngest there. I'm a bit stuck. I would encourage others to join in this event but honestly I don't want to set the bar so low. The amount of time we are puttng into this event as a group effort is less then when I plan a service for worship on a Sunday.

But on the other hand, this is a tradition that has meaning to the women who come out. They remember the old days where there work was vital to the community - the bake sales to raise money were well attended, funding for overseas missions often came from their efforts. That the world has changed isn't on their radar except to see that not as many people go to church. I don't think that it would occur to them that this is our responsibility to correct.

So I sat in this church, which put effort into fixing up their lounge - I felt like I was sitting in some grandmothers living room, nodding politely but feeling that if I could get out of doing this I would. I'm going to plant a seed at the next meeting and ask if this is a community event.