* NLS series on Prayer - history, theology & spirituality - November 2009 - February 2010 *

Prayer is at the centre of Jewish life and we are delighted that it is at the core of our educational programming this winter. We are attaching a flyer for this Sunday and for the Monday evening sessions that follow, as we are sure you will want to forward them to friends and family you think might be interested in attending. Click here to download the flyer 

We launch the series this coming Sunday at 8.00 pm, with an Interfaith panel discussion on Prayer chaired by David Gifford, the Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Christians and Jews.

"What takes place when a person prays? 
What is role of a fixed liturgy? 
Do we have to understand our prayers? 
Does God always listen?"

These questions and more will be addressed by a panel of religious leaders...
 
Rabbi Jeremy Gordon, New London Synagogue
Rev Dr Andres Bergquist, St Johns Wood Church
Imam Dr Mamdou Bocoum, Muslim College

There is no charge for the launch event on November 1st.

The series continues with two units of five sessions and there will be two courses running concurrently. 

The cost is £6 per Monday evening session or £25 for each unit of five paid in advance.

Unit One - Mondays  9th November - 7th December at 8.00 pm

Choose from
Siddur Sat Nav - with Rina Wolfson - Do you need help navigating the Shabbat morning service? Do you find yourself standing up and sitting down in all the wrong places?  If so, then this course is perfect for you. Siddur Sat-Nav is the perfect tool for navigating your way through the Siddur. Using clear graphics and easy instructions, Siddur Sat-Nav will help you find your place in any Siddur and follow a service without getting lost en-route. We’ll start our journey of discovery by focusing on the services for Shabbat morning, occasionally stopping to admire some of the most important prayers in closer detail.

Or  
These are a few of my Favourite Prayers - ‘These are a Few of My Favourite Prayers’ is a more advanced series designed for people with familiarity with the prayer service who are looking for more depth on specific parts of the service. It will focus on history, meaning and music.

Nov 9th  -  The Trouble with Prayer  -  Rabbi Jeremy Gordon
Nov 16th  -  Kedushah  -  Chazan Stephen Cotsen
Nov 23rd  -  Yotzer Or  -   Rabbi Jeremy Gordon
Nov 30th  -  V'hu Rachum  -  Chazan Jacqui Chernett
Dec 7th  -  Al HaNissim  -  Rabbi Jeremy Gordon

Unit Two - Mondays  25th January - 22nd February at 8.00 pm 

Choose from
Siddur Sat Nav - with Rina Wolfson (as above) 

Or
These are a few of my Favourite Prayers  
Jan 25th  -  Hallel (part I)  -  Rabbi Jeremy Gordon
Feb 1st  -  Hallel (part II)  -  Chazan Stephen Cotsen
Feb 8th  -  Kaddish  -  Chazan Jacky Chernett
Feb 15th  -  Bircat Hamazon  -  Chazan Stephen Cotsen
Feb 22nd   -  Aleinu  -  Rabbi Jeremy Gordon

The second series will be launched with an Interfaith Concert on Sunday 17th January . This promises to be an outstanding event - please put the date in your diary, full details will be sent out shortly once the programme is finalised.

In case you did not read the Rabbi's message which introduced the series last Friday, we repeat it below...

From the Rabbi  - Three Attempts to Speak About Prayer

I have lived on the lip of insanity,
wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door.
It opens. I've been knocking
from the inside.

For neither lips nor the brain are the limits of the scene in which prayer takes place. Speech and devotion are functions auxiliary to a metaphysical process. Common to all who pray is the certainty that prayer is an act which makes the heart audible to God. Prayer is not a thought that rambles alone in the world, but an event that starts in man and ends in God.

There must be a time when the man of prayer goes to pray as if it were the first time in his life he had ever prayed; when the man of resolutions puts his resolutions aside as if they had all been broken, and he learns a different wisdom: distinguishing the sun from the moon, the stars from the darkness, the sea from the dry land, and the night sky from the shoulder of a hill.
---------------------------------------
One of these citations comes from a Jewish spiritual master, another is Christian and the third a Muslim. (For a ‘who is who,’ you can scroll to the bottom of this weekly mail). For me all three touch on basic truths about the journey of prayer, a journey that must begin inside, must reach beyond the self and ultimately must return to the self.

Of course Jewish, Christian and Muslim prayer traditions are different, but, of course, all spiritual practices aimed at bridging the gap between a finite individual a shared conception of a singular deity will overlap.

I am hugely excited that next Sunday, 1st November at 8.00 pm, I will be joined, at New London by our local parish priest, Rev Dr Andres Berquist and the librarian of the Muslim College, Imam Dr Mamdou Bocoum. The Director of the Council of Christians and Jews, David Gifford, will be in the chair.

I expect that, in contra-distinction to last nights BBC Question Time, our discussions will be enlightening and spiritually engaging. This is an important event for New London (indeed the first inter-faith programme since I have joined the Synagogue), you are all most warmly invited to join us.

* The first extract in the Rabbi’s weekly message is a poem by the thirteenth century Sufi poet Rumi.
The second is from Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Man’s Quest for God.
The third is from the writings of the twentieth century monk Thomas Merton.