John in Hull--

A prayer chain is simply a group of people who agree to pray for prayer requests that will be brought before them. In some chains, it works phone-to-phone, where each agrees to call the next member on the list and pass the prayer request along, and I guess then each one would pray with the next one on the list as they make the calls.

Ours is an e-mail list, and yes, we have been praying for Catspaw since he requested it (or took me up on the offer, I don't recall which) for a long time.

One of the nice things is that often, a lot of the people on the chain get the e-mail message at about the same time, and PFOOM! Up goes a lot of simultaneous spontaneous prayer. "Holding" one end of that, and getting the replies that sometimes come, is quite something-- packs a big wallop. That in turn elicits another burst of prayer from me. It's extremely cool! IMNSHO.

Some of us also pray in song, meaning that as we mull over the matter put beore us, our prayer comes out in sung or played music. Sometimes a known piece, sometimes one made up or "given" to us in the moment. Whaddaya expect, from a bunch of folkies! *G* Others of us pray wordlessly.... or use pre-written prayer formats... or rosaries... It's all pretty loosely set up from that viewpoint... the assumption is that each person participating has or does a thing they think of as prayer, and that's how they participate.

If you would like to know more please e-mail me at the link posted above and I'll send you the current FAQ.

~Susan