Sunday 24 August 2008

Book of Vestry Prayers - Now Available

Hello Readers, further news on the book of Vestry Prayers which is now available for purchase if any readers are interested - I took one to church with me this morning to show our senior steward and she said it was very good and that she thought the price of £4-99 was a good price given the quality of the book. Postage and packing will add a further £1 to the price and the book can be ordered direct from me at the moment by sending a cheque for £5-99 made payable to Ian Southall, 81,Alexandra Road, Palfrey, Walsall. WS1 4AZ. Cheques should be made payable to Ian Southall. (Please allow 28 days for delivery as I only have 5 copies until my next order is placed for a larger amount of copies) It would be an ideal present for your church stewards or as a resource in your vestry.
I am looking at making them available direct from the publisher both to purchase as a book and to download and I will post more news shortly.
The picture of the book will give you an idea of what it looks like but I have to say that the cover is plain green not striped as it appears on the scanned picture.
For those who read the vestry prayers I put on the blog I will continue to do this and the year 'B' prayers will not be the one's that are in the book.

Thursday 21 August 2008

Vestry Prayer ordinary 22

Lord God we come to you today recognising your greatness, your steadfast love and your amazing grace to each one of us. We are mindful that there are many who do not know you as their Lord and Saviour and many for whom the question 'Who do you say I am' would result in a wide range of responses. We ask Lord that as your servant N... brings your word to us this morning we would be reminded that your are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and for any who are in fellowship with us today who do not know you we pray that they might see the real answer to the question of who You are, and not just go away believing the multi faceted world view of who You are.
We pray Lord God that you would continue with us in our time of worship in the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus. Amen

Vestry Prayer Book Latest News!

The book of Vestry Prayers has arrived from the printer's today and I am very impressed with the quality of the product. I think the price of £4.99 is fair and I will tomorrow post a copy to myself so I can see what the postage is to give a proper price. I ordered six books initially but will probably place a bigger order with the intention of taking some to our district synod in September to see if I can get a feel for whether it might be worth widening the availability. I will look also at allowing customers to purchase direct from the publisher and at being able to download for friends in such far flung places as South Africa.
My son said something along the lines of I wouldn't be selling many as I am putting one on the blog each week, but these are written each week using the same method I did for the prayers in the book - I look at the lectionary readings and suggested hymns in a number of sources and compose the prayer using the thoughts from the various things I have looked at.
In the book there is a prayer for each Sunday in the lectionary year but not for the extra Sundays such as MHA and NCH on the basis that these sorts of organisation often produce their own material.

Monday 18 August 2008

Book of Vestry Prayers

Following on from my previous post and the comment From Steve Jones in South Africa I thought I should post again relating to this book.
The original book was done completely from start to finish by me using a local office supplies company for the printing and then I cut the pages down to A5 and used plastic slides for the binding of them. I produced 50 copies and gave one to each of our local preachers and one to each church in the circuit - while the cost was reasonable there was a lot of work involved in the production process and I decided not to go any further with it at the time.
Two years on and encouraged by the fact that the book is being used quite regularly in our circuit I thought there may be other people and places where the book could be a useful thing for them to have. I was also encouraged by the fact that a number of people check the prayers I have been putting on the blog each week.
I have found a self publishing company through a magazine I read and last week ordered six copies of the book to see what it would look like produced 'professionally' with the thought of taking it to our district synod in September to see if there would be any interest. I also thought it might be worth putting something on the blog about it again to test the water so to speak.
I have to say that the production cost using this method is probably a little higher but I am hoping when I receive the order that they will be a far better product and will be attractive to people who may wish to have a selection of vestry prayers. I would have to fund the printing of any quantity initially and that is part of the reason for testing the water - the project is not about making money but more about providing what may be a useful resource for others at a reasonable cost and covering my initial outlay - there is a possibility that if I were ordering say 100 copies that the price might come down due to bulk purchase discounts.
At this point in time I have set the book up so that I am the only one who can purchase it but may well open it out to anyone being able to purchase and there is a facility to enable downloads of copies direct from the publisher and again this is certainly a method I will consider using once I have seen the book 'in print' and been able to satisfy myself with the quality of the product.
I am hoping to receive the book in the next few days so watch this space for more news!!

Saturday 16 August 2008

Vestry Prayer Ordinary 21

Father whose everlasting love provided us with a gift beyond compare in your son, we worship and extol you as we gather in fellowship today.
We would ask dear lord that your grace would flow through our time of worship and that you would anoint our brother/sister with your power and bless them as they bring your word to those gathered here today.
May we all be in your presence and sit at your feet resting in your arms of love. We ask all these things in Him and through Him. Amen.

Tuesday 12 August 2008

Vestry Prayers Coming Soon!

Those of you who know anything about the Revised Common Lectionary will know that we are currently in Year 'A' and that Year 'B' will begin on the first Sunday in Advent this year.
I wrote a years worth of prayers for year 'B' in 2004 and I printed sufficient copies at the time for all of the churches in our circuit to have a copy as well as all my local preacher colleagues - I am quite encouraged to hear from other preachers and to observe personally when taking services that this book is used quite often by the stewards in our churches.
In view of this I have considered for some time making this book more widely available and I have decided to publish it in a more commercial fashion than photocopying. I have sent the text to a publisher and I am waiting for the draft copy to come back so I can check the quality of the product before I place a bigger order.
I anticipate the selling price for this book being £4-99 unless I can order sufficient quantity to reduce the production cost and then post and packing would be extra and at this point I can not say what that would be but once I get a copy I will post it to myself to enable me to work out the cost.
I am hoping to get the draft copy in the next few days so will give an update on cost etc. as soon as I can. If you might be interested in purchasing a copy of this book then please let me know (there is no obligation) as I want to get an idea of how viable this would be - I already know five or six people who would like a copy.

An apology

Just a little note to say sorry to those who come here to read the vestry prayers I have been posting. I am not sure what happened but the prayer I put on for last Sunday never made it to the front end of the blog - I am hoping to post for this week tomorrow so it will give me chance to ensure it is appearing on the blog.

Saturday 2 August 2008

Back now!

Hi folks,haven't been around for the last week as I have been in Borth with the beach mission team. We have had a very good week, met some great children and made a few new contacts in respect of parents. The team have worked very hard during the week and sometimes people ask me why I do it - two weeks ago today that was exactly the question I was asking myself but when you see the enjoyment the children get from the week and the number who keep coming back each year it is very encouraging.
My wife and I went to the Salvation Army in Aberystwyth last Sunday morning and the Captain asked if we were on holiday and we said we were at the beach mission in Borth and he asked me to give a word of testimony during the service. In the afternoon we went to the Welsh Chapel in Borth where the majority of the service was in Welsh - one hymn was What a friend we have in Jesus which we sang in English and they sang in Welsh and I think we won. At the end of the service the hymn was Abide with me and the Welsh version had 6 verse while the English version had 5 (we sang the last verse in Welsh or tried anyway),
Yesterday was carnival day and as is usual in Borth there were some very good floats and some interesting fancy dress outfits.
We rounded off the week with a presentation and praise time and all went off to McDonald's for supper!