Prayer Room was Sanctuary for Delegates

By Audrey Stanton-Smith

At the end of a quiet hallway on the upper floor of the Charlotte Convention Center, delegates and visitors find space to pray.

“It is quiet, and it’s sort of away from everybody,” said Amy Steele, dean of the chapel and executive director of program ministries for The Upper Room. “And, yes, it is a walk down the hallway, but that’s a chance to let go, breathe deeply, center and prepare yourself for prayer. It is an escape not just from the external noise, but (also) the internal noise.”

Karen Hayden knows how important such a space can be.

“In 2016, I was a delegate, and I stumbled upon that dedicated space. I went back to it regularly while at General Conference,” said Hayden, a member of the Missouri Conference. A certified spiritual director, she returned this year as one of 42 prayer room volunteers. “It was helpful. Comfortable. I just remember feeling refreshed.”

The “Cultivating the Garden of the Heart” prayer room at E222 was open to all and included prompts and Scriptures in Portuguese, Korean, French, Spanish and Kiswahili.

“A prayer room at General Conference is absolutely essential because our work needs to be a practice of holy conferencing and discernment, and you can’t do holy conferencing and discernment by resolutions and votes,” said Thomas Albin, a prayer room volunteer and former dean of the chapel for The Upper Room.

Hosted by The Upper Room and sponsored by Wesleyan Impact Partners, the United Methodist Foundation of Western North Carolina, Oklahoma Methodist Foundation and United Methodist Foundation of North Carolina, the prayer room featured three dedicated prayer altars and eight prayer stations with Scripture-based activity prompts.

Prayer altars with kneeling benches on loan from New Market United Methodist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, were dedicated to prayer for an end to sexual violence and human trafficking, an end to war and armed conflict, and prayer “for a hope that hopes beyond hope.”

Prayer stations are “opportunities to connect on a deeper level with Scripture,” Steele explained. “So, there is opportunity to just say a prayer, alone or with someone, or you can give yourself over to a different kind of prayer experience at each of the stations.”

For example, the “Tending Wilted Leaves” station references Psalm 1:3 and invited visitors to write a prayer request “for an area of your life where you feel you are wilting” on a leaf-shaped slip of paper and pin it to a tree while asking God to hear your prayers and water your life and the life of the church.

“Chasing the Foxes” refers to Song of Solomon 2:15 and invites participants to name their foxes — a habit, attitude or obsession — “that is running wild in your vineyard.” A small cage on the table invites participants to lock those foxes away, “out of the garden of your mind and heart and out of the church.”

Other stations invite visitors to remember baptism, bloom in God’s abundance, pray for God’s guidance and simply rest in God’s grace. Visitors may opt to remove shoes, take a pair of socks from a basket and take a reflective walk around a labyrinth rug. Others may enjoy watching a sugar cube dissolve into a fish bowl seascape as they consider “living forgiveness.”

“The sugar cube is a chance to think about your sin, and when you drop your sugar cube into the water, it’s like casting your sins into the sea of forgiveness,” Steele explained.

The prayer room also offered spiritual guidance in the form of 50-minute, one-on-one sessions with certified spiritual directors. Conference attendees interested in a free private session in a curtained-off space simply sign up for an available time slot at the prayer room’s entrance.

“Our intent with the spiritual directors is not to direct anyone,” Steele said. “It is just to sit and listen to them and whatever issues or concerns they may have. It is just a chance to help them process.”

Melinda Trotti, a volunteer spiritual director from Michigan, said her training has reminded her to remind others that God is God regardless of what happens in the business of The United Methodist Church.

“The spiritual direction time is whatever people want it to be,” Trotti said. “We’re here to support, to pray with people if they want that, and to ask helpful questions.”

“No agenda,” Hayden added. “Just a space to listen.”

Audrey Stanton-Smith is editor of United Women in Faith’s Response magazine. Image: Norma Villagrana of the Western North Carolina Conference prays at an altar in the General Conference prayer room in Charlotte, N.C. The “Cultivating the Garden of the Heart” prayer room is sponsored by The Upper Room and includes prompts and Scriptures in Portuguese, Korean, French, Spanish and Kiswahili. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.