The Office of Evening Prayer is said in the Christ Church chapel every week day at 5 pm. Evening Prayer is a collection of prayers, psalms and readings from Scripture, usually lasting no more than 25 minutes. Last Thursday I happened to be there alone, reading the office aloud. 

Around 5:15 pm a group of senior citizens entered the chapel, having come from another event in the building. One lady sat in the back pew and look relieved to have somewhere to sit and rest. Another man was shepherding the remainder of the group in. If someone from the group saw or heard me, it wasn’t immediately apparent. As I read from the gospel of Mark, voices from the group filled the chapel.

I stopped reading and looked up. “Excuse me,” I said politely. No one looked in my direction and the voices grew louder.. “Excuse me!” I said again, this time more emphatically. The voices in the chapel grew silent and one of the invaders looked at me. Sheepishly, he raised his hand and motioned for everyone to leave. Later, I discovered them talking together in the reception area.

Of course, they were welcome to stay. However, they had not come to pray, but to rest. If they were willing to sit in respectful silence, listening to the words of Scripture and prayers for the world, it would have been fine, but that was not their intention. They wanted a different kind of sanctuary, where they could fill the time with conversation until they were ready to leave. 

Reflecting on the unexpected visitors the following day, I appreciated their sensitivity in withdrawing and allowing the work of prayer to continue. For that is what the Daily Office is - it is prayer work, with praises, supplications and recitations from the Old and New Testaments. Often there are two or three of us who pray, but on this day I was alone. 

Churches and chapels, since they are dedicated to God, are different from other places. A chapel is not a waiting room in a railway station, or a marketplace or a concert hall, but a house for God and his servants. It is a sanctified space, set apart for worship and prayer. This is grounded in the understanding that life has a spiritual as well as material dimension, and that spiritual matters are best approached in a reverent and respectful manner. 

After a time, prayer and worship change the nature of our reality. For example, many ancient churches have a special atmosphere, as if the prayers offered up over the centuries had been absorbed into the stone walls. This is what sometimes grips people when they enter a holy place, as they experience for the first time a sense of the “other.”

How often do you stop at the door of the church before entering? Think of it as a rehearsal for when you will enter heaven. The inner part of you has found a sanctuary from the outside world, a space where you can come and simply be yourself. Many people, after they have entered church and have found their place in the pew, fall to their knees. This is the moment when you offer yourself to the Lord in prayer. In the Lord’s House, you are never alone, for God is waiting and praying with you.

Father David