Matlock Methodist & United Reformed Church Website

Prayer is communication with God and anyone can pray. Jesus taught about prayer and gave us a prayer to use in Matthew 6:9-13. The Lords' Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom,
The power and the glory,
For ever and ever,
Amen.

Prayer is at the centre of Christian life and to experience God's answer to prayers is a true blessing when it is recognised as such. There can be times when prayers are answered straight away and others when the answers to prayers require patience and come in time. Whichever it is, it is certain that God hears our prayers and answers each one.

The link below will take you to the Methodist church website where a daily prayer is provided every day of the year.

Prayer of the day

Prayer for Peace

Within our Church we have a special area dedicated to praying for peace and there with a simple cross and a candle is a Prayer for Peace which is reproduced here:

lead me from death to life

from falsehood to truth
lead me from despair to hope
from fear to trust
lead me from hate to love
from war to peace
let peace fill our heart
our world our universe
peace peace peace

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Prayer for Christmas

For the 40 days from 15 November until Christmas Eve, let us join in prayer together, to seek “the light which blazed out of the darkness, which could not be put out” (from John 1), Jesus Christ.

From our solitariness we can be united, in love, hope and yearning for a new and better way. Each day you are asked to spend some time in prayer.

Use the themes in the leaflet as a guide, but start each day with the following:

"Lord, teach me to pray.

Help me to talk with you and not at you.

Help me to hear your voice in whatever way you choose to talk to me.

Take me deeper today in my relationship with you.”

Click Christmas Prayer Leaflet

Prayer Focus

The prayer life of our Church is forever important to us as Christians seeking to communicate clearly with God.

We have many instances of experiencing personal answer to prayer and we seek always to offer to pray for those in need as well as to give thanks to God for His wondrous gifts to us all.

Prayer forms one of the largest parts of our Christian witness and as Christians we all turn to God in prayer for personal circumstances, for all those whom we know and especially for the needs of the world. We ask that the Holy Spirit will move among us and guide us to do God's will.

We operate a Prayer Chain among volunteers of our Church to provide prayer for those circumstances which can come upon anyone suddenly both good and bad. The Prayer Chain members receive a call for prayer and immediately pray for the circumstance and then contact others in the Chain to also pray.

The Prayer Chain has given support to many people of the Church and its' community.

Where world circumstances are in need of prayer, such as for war, terrorist atrocities and human catastrophe, our Church Worship Centre is often opened to provide the community with the opportunity to enter the Church and to pray for those in need.

When open for community prayer, the Church is always attended by volunteers to whom those who come to pray can turn for support if it is needed.

The Church Worship Centre is opened during our regular Friday Lunches events to allow those who visit the Church for a meal to also have the opportunity to pray.

Prayer Ministry Team

The Prayer Ministry Team is made up of local people from the congregation of Matlock Methodist & United Reformed Church and Matlock Moor Methodist Church, who offer to pray with anyone who requests prayer, healing prayer, the laying on of hands, or any other form of Prayer Ministry

We have a Prayer Chain and Prayer Times and with this Prayer Ministry we are able to offer a person to person prayer support that whilst linked, it can be in a sense quite separate to the Prayer Chain, Wednesday Prayer Time and Prayer Surgery.

It is in line with Biblical teaching on the power of prayer in James Ch5 V13 onwards.

There is an area set aside in Church for praying before each Sunday Worship Service.

Members of the Prayer Team will make themselves available to anyone following each Sunday morning service. Anyone who would like someone to pray with them is invited to either gather in the communion area of the Worship Room immediately after the service or ask to arrange a convenient time and place for the Ministry of Prayer to take place.

The Prayer Ministry Team will be discreet and completely confidential.

Remembrance

We will remember them.

There are two war memorials at our Church. The First World War memorial is an engraved stone plaque and the Second World War memorial is an engraved plaque.

Our Church also maintains a book of remembrance for Church members. There is also a small garden area adjacent to the entrance to the Community Halls and here there is a memorial plaque for Church Members whose ashes have been laid here.

There is information about the memorial inscriptions within Matlock Methodist & United Reformed Church based on information obtained by the late Ruth Pearson within the The Andrews Pages website.

Church from the Bus

As an extension of work commenced in Chesterfield by Church Army Leader Captain Alan Park, the Church from the Bus now takes place at Cornerstone Christian Bookshop in Matlock on Dale Road every week.

The Church from the Bus is welcoming to anyone and especially to those who are in need of support such as those who are homeless; lonely; suffering addictions; or just in need of someone to talk to.

On Tuesdays afternoons between 1:00pm and 2:30pm volunteers give out a few tins and packet foods; serve tea, coffee, hot chocolate, sandwiches, biscuits and occasionally cakes (often donated by Butterfingers Bakery).

More importantly the Cornerstones venue provides a safe place for people to feel welcomed, be able to sit quietly in comfort, to chat, to ask questions, and to pray. The afternoon ends with prayers and worship.

Click here for more information

A wide range of volunteers from Churches Together offer friendship and practical advice, fellowship, Christian love and prayers, if asked, for anyone who steps on board.

Church from the Bus in Chesterfield now meets every Monday and Thursday evening from 6.45pm to 7.45pm (apart from Bank Holiday Mondays) in the upstairs facilities at Grace Chapel. Access is from the rear entrance off Rose Hill.

Volunteers also provide hot & cold refreshments and food for free as well has having clothing, shoes, blankets and preserved foods for those in need.

The Church on the Bus is supported in prayer and in practice by funds and donations from several Derbyshire Churches.

Please Contact Us for more information or to offer your help and support.

Community Support - Local & National

As a part of the community the Church provides a means of support for a wide variety of charitable organisations both locally and nationally.

A large proportion of our Church Members give of their time and talents in support of charitable work as well as giving of their own resources and finance.

The principal charitable organisations that are supported by this Church include

For her work in support of the Matlock Hospital League of Friends, Pam Wildgoose, a Member of our Church has received an MBE.

Through the volunteers of the Church Toddler Group that provides an informal play and chat environment for toddlers and their carers, the Church has provided Parenting Courses to support young families in the Church Family and wider community as they learn to raise their children.

The Matlock Area Schools Trust is an interdenominational trust formed to support lay people ministering in our local schools. The M.A.S.T team has a passion to teach young people the fundamentals of the Bible.

Local schools invite M.A.S.T team members to provide school assemblies to all ages of school children.

The team members also regularly lead worship in the local Churches. A news letter and monthly prayer letter are available from their website publications page.

Matlock Area Schools Trust

Cross, bible & cup

There are regular Worship Services that occur at local facilities for the elderly within Matlock.

At Claremont Nursing Home there is a regular weekly service on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. led mainly by a Lay Preacher and once each month this is a Communion Service led by one of the Ordained Ministers.

At Victoria Court Sheltered Housing there is a monthly Communion & Worship Service on the 3rd Monday in each month @ 2:30pm which is organised through Matlock Moor Church.

The Church premises are often the venue for public performances by the Matlock Operatic Society, the Dalesmen Male Voice Choir and other local performing arts groups.

Please visit the Facilities & Location section for further information on the premises amenities.

Many of the international aid agencies that are supported also provide support within the United Kingdom.

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Community Support - International

In reaching out to the world our Church has links with a number of organisations and individuals who are at work for God across the globe and in some of the hardest of locations to survive let alone practice your faith.

We believe that our calling is to support fellow human beings in the hope of lifting them from their adversity through our faithful actions.

Our Church congregation provides significant support to the Aquabox project that is an initiative of the Wirksworth branch of Rotary International.

This amazingly useful scheme provides literally millions of litres of clean drinking water to some of the poorest and most devastated people using an incredibly simple-to-use box and filter system to clean polluted water into pure, safe drinking water.

The Aquabox boxes are transported from the UK filled with essential aid items and filter packs and then the boxes, once emptied, are used to process the polluted water and have saved thousands, perhaps millions of lives. Great care is taken to ensure the safe transit of the boxes to those who really need them.

We are linked to the Armenian Ministries organisation through a Member of our Church and we support Vanessa Cook who is in Service for God in Germany.

Our Church also supports Dorothy who is a young lady in a Spurgeons Orphanage in Kenya and has supported Roy and Jane Dodman who are working in impoverished parts of Kingston, Jamaica.

Wherever there are disasters, either man made or natural, this Church Family has sought to give generously to support the combined international relief agencies with financial donations.

The monies collected at the regular Friday lunches, as well as going towards supporting the work of the Church in Matlock, is often donated to specific areas of need around the world.

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