Archive for the ‘New resource alert’ Category

sharing all our loving secrets

Friday, February 9th, 2018

We’ve just published a brilliant new practical input resource on creative outreach, distilling our top ten tips for sharing God’s love in creative ways

The Sanctuary’s collective sometimes refer to ourselves as ‘accidental evangelists’ – pray-ers, worship leaders and creatives who set out to bring more of the world into the church’s worship, who also found God leading us to bring more worship into the world in some very beautiful and life-giving ways…

As a result, for several years we’ve found ourselves conducting a kind of evangelism that feels very natural to us – it’s simply been an overflow of who we are… and so it’s come out through creating art installations in windows, poetry and allegories, singing on the streets, hand-crafting gifts, hand-writing letters and cards of encouragement and using social media to proactively bless and affirm.

You can browse some of this work here.

For the most part, it’s been really well received and so we felt it was time to try and distil and share some of the lessons we’ve learned.

The result is this resource which we hope and pray will bless and empower you as you too seek to share God’s love in creative ways

Please do contact us if you want to share your stories or ask us any questions about ours.

what kind of world?

Wednesday, January 24th, 2018

This lament formed as a heart-cry in response to today’s devastating news from Afghanistan, and is dedicated to Save the Children’s workers and their families there, and all around the world, as we all ask God to comfort them, renew their courage, and as we pray blessing on their brave, amazing and loving work.

What kind of a world is it
where those who champion
the small,
infinitely precious
and vulnerable ones,
are attacked and destroyed?

What kind of a world is it
where love in action
is hated,
visciously wounded
and intimidated even to death
by anyone, however twisted a doctrine they serve?

But then, what kind of a world is it
where people live to protect
the small;
calling unknown children
their own precious priority,
infinitely worth risking danger to themselves to save?

And what kind of a world is it
that has life so written and woven
into its being
that hope always wins
as even the darkest acts
spark infinite avalanches of bright, light love in reply?

And what kind of God are you
who breathes
a blue-print invitation
into each of us,
to echo your  saving design,
whilst still bearing
the infinite weight and scars
of every,
single
rescue and loss
on your broad,
broken
shoulders of peace?

our top ten tips for praying with the headlines

Tuesday, January 16th, 2018

We’ve just published a brand new practical input resource sharing our top ten tips for praying with the headlines

We don’t have all the answers on how to pray in response to the news and current affairs. But here are some of the invaluable lessons that we have gradually learned as we’ve prayed with the news as a community on a daily basis for many years.

We hope you find them helpful in building your confidence and adding to – or confirming – your own experience. And if you have some extra tips you think we should include alongside them, do let us know!

Ultimately, the best way to grow in prayer is not to read resources about it, but to go on an adventure with God into it.

But we hope that some of the practical insights in this resource will inspire, remove fear around engaging with ‘heavier subjects’ and encourage people to move forward in their own journey of engaging with God’s world in his presence.

This new resource focuses on practical pointers exploring the ‘how’ of praying with the headlines, but you may also be interested in reading this blog article, which explores why praying in this way can be so rewarding – and surprisingly uplifting:  http://journey.thesanctuarycentre.org/2016/04/06/the-surprising-joy-of-interceding-for-the-world/

a careful and care-filled prayer

Thursday, December 14th, 2017

for the peace of Jerusalem, and for us all:

Precious Jesus,
thank you that you
love all places and all peoples,
came for all tribes and tongues,
dwell – by your Spirit – in all nations,
choose to make your temple now
in hearts more than buildings,
and will one day come again
to make the whole earth new.

Precious Jesus,
for us who know you
as the incarnate, in-dwelling,
with-dwelling Lord,
and do not call the holy land
home in our day to day lives,
it’s hard to understand fully
the deep, unshakeable and compelling
resolves to possess Jerusalem,
however much we connect
to where you once walked –
or seek to understand those
who walk there today.

But thank you that you,
so much more than us,
understand why specific places
matter so much.
And thank you that you,
so much more than all of us,
know a way forward
that honours your perfect will and application
of your love, peace and justice
rather than our own – or others’ – interpretations
of what you want or what your word means.

Precious Jesus,
I come humbly in my limited,
foreign understanding.
I don’t want to trample your holy ground
or the dreams of anyone made in the image of you.
You already know what I think I think about Jerusalem,
but even while I still dearly long to truly know how you feel for sure,
I do not need to know that to pray with you for its peace,
and the peace of all people from different nations and faiths that look to it.

Precious Jesus, in your tender, weeping mercy,
and in your mighty name,
take this city right now under your protecting wings
like the mother hen you pictured,
and keep all her peoples and connected lands
safe from yet more cycling hatred and war.
And save us, Lord Jesus, please save us
from any who seek power over peace
or simply know not what they do here,
over and over and over again.

bringing new life to Christmas traditions…

Wednesday, December 13th, 2017

… from all around the world!


We’ve uploaded a brand new resource to our seasonal resources page ready for Christmas this year and beyond…

This creative idea to bring new life to your Christmas celebrations and traditions draws inspiration from countries all around the world to introduce you to brand new ideas and share the original Christ-inspired stories behind old ones – all with a desire to help you re-connect more to Jesus as you celebrate his coming in many different ways with those around you.

The fact this resource also lead us on a mini, global tour full of learning from Christians around the world is a brilliant extra blessing, reminding us that Jesus came for all nations, peoples and cultures.

Our hope and prayer is that you’ll be as inspired as we have been to read these stories… and that you’ll experience a more worship-filled Christmas as a result…

putting God at the centre of your celebrations

Wednesday, December 6th, 2017

In the abstract, holidays feel like a time when there should be more space to connect with God and the things on his heart. But in reality, many of us find that when we’re away from our normal routines, it can be harder – rather than easier – to spend time in worship, prayer or even reflection… especially if we are away with other people…

Busy festival times of celebration – especially Christmas – can be even more like this…

Even when the reason for all the activity is Jesus, it can end up negatively impacting on our time with him, or lead us to feel like we have two modes of operation – one clearly connected to our devotion, and one that just feels separate, even if its really good. In the morning we might read our Bible or an Advent reflection, but later when we’re laughing with friends over good food, it can feel like that’s unrelated to him.

So we wanted to share this incredibly simple and obvious idea that some of us used on an extended holiday recently, that we found to be so wonderful we’re planning to use it every time we enter a period like this, as a way of:

  • consciously doing holidays and celebrations with God
  • connecting with him together really naturally
  • giving him all the thanks and praise for all the good gifts we’re enjoying, so that they (and we) are always connected to the one who gave them all.

As well as the joy we experienced from doing this with God, we also ended up making a note of some wonderful moments we might otherwise have forgotten, and getting the chance to savour everything more richly together before moving on to the next thing.

It’s basically a way of capturing and thanking God for every good gift you experience, by adding a little more each day to what gradually becomes a giant thanksgiving chart…

…as we said, it’s a super simple idea, but this resource explains clearly everything you need and notes some additional pointers that might be helpful.

We know that holiday and celebration times – especially with family – can throw up negative experiences and emotions as well, and this exercise we’re sharing is absolutely not about denying those.

It’s really important and healthy to pour out our pain over this to God and the following two resources (the first generally and the second specifically in relation to Christmas) might help a bit with this:

We also have a blog from a few years back that a number of us have come back to repeatedly with some more simple ideas about increasing connection to God during vacation times: http://journey.thesanctuarycentre.org/2011/08/01/rest-in-his-presence/

praying with Chi Rho

Monday, October 9th, 2017

We’ve just published a new creative idea resource, which uses a simple and ancient symbol – the Christogram of Chi Rho (representing the first two letters of ‘Christ’ in Greek) – to pray in a powerful new way for specific individuals… whether they’re public figures, or people known to you personally.

Download this new creative idea for praying for individuals using the ancient Christogram of Chi Rho direct, visit our creative ideas page or browse our whole online resource library to find more outward focused ideas to help you pray for leaders or individuals in challenging or dangerous situations.

freedom is as freedom does

Thursday, September 28th, 2017

We’ve uploaded a new resource. Freedom is as freedom does is a poem celebrating the kingdom understanding of individual liberty as being inter-connected with others’ worth and flourishing. You can download it as a printable pdf from our articles and poetry page or read it below:


Freedom is as freedom does

I’m still learning freedom is as freedom does;
it’s about the you – as well as the me – contained in us…

Heaven’s maths and kingdom equality are set by the one who is also three,
one who multiplies his connection-reflection in billions more like me.

The West tells me: “live the material gospel of individuality!”
But I cannot be free if I’m bound up in someone else’s slavery.

Consumer culture persuades me “make more to have more to one day be enough”.
But I’ll never find my wings in the service of amassing endless stuff.

It’s not real plenty when it comes at such poverty-sustaining cost.
It’s not seeing the world if others’ homes and habitats get lost.

It’s simply not real life if it clutters my days with distraction
and robs me of time and space with my One True Satisfaction.

So God of freedom, crash through all my self-justifying defences;
help me see better through this matrix and come to my senses.

It was for freedom that you so extravagantly set us free,
not for comfort, but for upward and outward relational liberty.

For I am not just I – I am in you and I am in your body.
So I am less with every threat to – every theft from – our corporately.
But I am more – and I am free – when I surrender to you; utterly.

new season – new ways to pray with us

Thursday, September 14th, 2017

Welcome to the Sanctuary’s new season and an update on some new and emerging ways to pray with us that we’re really excited to tell you about; especially if you’ve not been able to engage in our prayer rhythm previously because of physical distance from our base in the heart of the UK.

To jump straight in, visit pray with us; to find out more, keep reading…

At the heart of everything we are and do at the Sanctuary is worship and intercession. And, most centrally of all, our daily prayer rhythm of both, which has been running for more than seven years.

For the last five years of these seven – September 2012 to Augst 2017 – this rhythm was based at 6 Church Street, Ilkley. During this time – as part of a public centre set up, run in a shop-front space – we opened up this prayer rhythm up to everyone and anyone…

Monday to Friday we were there, three times a day, gathering with regulars, visitors and people passing through to worship God and lift the world – and every one in seven billion within it he so loves – to him.

But as of 1 September 2017, that changed as our occupation of 6 Church Street ended on 31 August.

We’re in the process of moving to our new base and preparing to work towards building a new small, bespoke prayer space there from scratch, which will even more closely match the vision God first gave us in 2009.

Of course, despite the disruption, inevitable mixed emotions and endless boxes(!) this is all very exciting…

But much more importantly, we’re entering a new season with a new model of working better suited to developing and growing – in both depth reach – our vision of engaging ourselves and others in sustained prayer for the nations, resourcing the church in outward focused worship and reaching out in creative ways to those who have not yet encountered God’s love.

In short, our vision and work (aside from expansion of the latter made possible by increased capacity) isn’t really changing. We’re still committed to obeying everything God has called us to do to explore, share and resource the journey towards the place where world and worship meet.

But the way we go about our work, and who we open some elements of it to, is changing.

The biggest change in our new model is that we’re shifting away from running a public centre to go both deeper and wider.

The deeper part is that the new base we’re developing will be much more of a hub,  a restorative, spacious and more private place which serves and facilitates the collective of people involved with actually carrying out the Sanctuary’s core work. Somewhere to gather, pray and work in and out of together in a more focused way.

The wider part is that we’re re-orientating how we do the rhythm to share the absolute treasure store we’ve found it to be with many, many more people than just those who were able to come through our front door when we  ran a public centre.

Shortly after our old base opened, one of our pray-ers asked if we could start sharing the famous whiteboard we used as the focus for the rhythm each day so that she could still pray with it even if she couldn’t come in that day.

And so we did – and suddenly, as well as our worship resources being used by people all over the world, people elsewhere started to use the whiteboard too…

Any prayer rhythm participation happening remotely was always just overflow – an added blessing… and because we were preparing each morning, we couldn’t usually share it until after morning worship.

But now this is all turning upside-down.

In our interim phase – now up until when the new prayer space has been built and is ready – and beyond it, even when our collective can gather again, we’re choosing to operate and resource the dispersed elements of our prayer rhythm much more deliberately.

So wherever you’re reading this, can we extend to you the warmest of invitations to join in with our daily rhythm remotely?

Because now the focus for any given day in the rhythm is being published late afternoon/early evening on the previous day. So no matter what time you check in Monday-Friday, wherever you are in the world, whatever time zone you live in and however early you like to pray, you should be able to find the focus there ready and waiting for you already!

Currently you can do this by following us on twitter or using the feed on the right hand side of our homepage to find out what our focus for worship and intercession is that day – and then join in with it!

(See our source document to view!some of the cycles behind the rhythm.)

But we hope more is coming too…

Hot off the press: we have also begun the process of trialing a daily email which resources this prayer rhythm in much more depth with a small group of our most committed pray-ers, with the view to exploring being able to offer this much more widely once it’s further developed.

We’re only a few days into this but the early signs suggest the road ahead could be more beautiful and transformational than we had even thought to imagine.

We’ll keep you posted but meanwhile, with the day’s focus now available to you in plenty of time each day, we’d love you to pray with us

If you have any questions about this, or any other element of the Sanctuary’s work, please do just contact us

sharing the little clay bird’s story

Wednesday, June 21st, 2017

Then no, ow, OW! What was that awful scraping? He wanted to take the potter to task, who did he think he was making?! More slip tears squeezed from his little clay eyes as each tiny chisel caught him by surprise. Prodded and poked from every seeming direction, what had he done to deserve such destruction? The potter paused, he felt every tear and he held the little clay bird very, very near. And he whispered so gently, “this won’t take forever, but to fly you must have your beautiful feathers.”

The Little Clay Bird is a poignantly beautiful short story for all ages, written in rhyming prose, which explores one aspect of the relationship between ‘maker’ and ‘made’.

From the little clay bird’s perspective, things look bleak and he constantly doubts his sculptor’s affection for him whilst he is being formed. But the Potter – and increasingly the reader too – is in no doubt that this creation process is a labour of deeply focused love which will ultimately lead to something so good, the little bird can’t even quite imagine it.

We’re thrilled to be sharing it with you, and also to be bringing it to life as an art installation for the next month or so, as our last story window at 6 Church Street – offering passers by the chance to take a printed copy from our window-mounted dispenser too:


Special thanks to:

• our author, Liz Baddaley for giving us permission to share the story of The Little Clay Bird with you.

• our photographer and bird sculptor, Barbara Macnish for all her beautiful and brilliant work.

• our bunting shaper: Emily Tysoe for spending a mucky morning creating our template and organising help from…

Create Café (Victorian Arcade, Ilkley) for kindly lending us some of their pre-painted items to furnish our ‘potter’s studio’.


If you live anywhere near Ilkley, you can enjoy painting any of the biscuit items featured in our window (excepting the little clay bird himself!)  and more at Create Cafe’s brilliant premises this summer. To find out more, visit their website or call 01943 817788.

But wherever you live, our prayer is you’ll be blessed and inspired by the little clay bird’s story and the potter’s extraordinary love.