A Great Time at Gregynog!

What a great time it was at Gregynog this week where I stayed for the 56th Summer School of Healing Conference. The guest speaker was Revd Dr. Elfed ap Nefydd Roberts, who was the Principal at the United Theological College in Aberystwyth when I was a theological student there. Not only is he an extremely spiritual and learned man, he is also an extremely nice man to know. When I was at college he was very much a father figure to the students, something that we all appreciated.

He spoke on the subject of 'Prayer & Relating to God', speaking of every aspect of prayer in terms of its power, its value and the various different types of prayer that are prayed. The Summer School Conference is a healing conference,and prayer is absolutely central to healing for it is prayer that will petition God to send down His healing Spirit upon the person in need. "Prayer", said Dr Roberts, "is on the edge of the mystery of God." He asked how we dare to speak of it, going on to explain that not to speak prayer is to neglect God Himself. Yet prayer, he went on to explain, is not something that we naturally do, and so, in that sense, we are learners in the School of Prayer throughout our lives.

Prayer is a movement in three directions:

• Inward --- for ourselves.
• Upward --- seeking God and His glory.
• Outward --- which centres on the needs of others.

Prayer is so important in our relationship with God. There is always movement of some kind in every relationship, and it's that movement which shows that the relationship is alive. In our relationship with God we are either moving inwards towards God who is in the centre, or outwards, drifting away from God.

Dr Roberts went on to categorise prayer into three main categories:

• Longing: A longing for God.
• A Gift: This longing is a gift from God. Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near (Isaiah 55:6). Discoveries about God are made in and through prayer. Prayer differs in Christianity from all other religions in that, as we open up to God in prayer, He comes to us. God is always close to us because He has already found us and knows us, and He plants in us a desire to get to find and know Him.
• Relationship: Prayer is about deepening our relationship with God. We seek after God for Himself, not for the gifts that He might bestow on us. The heart of Christian prayer is relating to the Divine.

For many people the time of prayer is all too often filled with the noise of human chattering, asking God for this and that, either for ourselves or for others. Through this noise it becomes difficult to hear God speaking to us, and so one of the most important aspects of sustained prayer is silence. It's in the silence that we experience the still calmness that prayer can bring to us, and it's in that stillness that we are able to listen to what God has to teach us and share with us.

Without a true relationship with God, man is incomplete, for there is a fullness of life which is found in relationship with God, and prayer is the link between human failing and the fullness of God. It is said that 'Man without God is less than man.' Just as gravity pulls us in a downward direction so God lifts us upward towards Himself. Just as flowers are drawn upwards by the light of the sun, so mankind is drawn upwards by the Light that is the Son.

Each year I look forward to July when this Conference is always held, and always find it a time of great blessing with much to experience and also much to look back on and, in so doing, to re-experience. I purchased the Cd's of Revd Dr Elfed ap Nefydd Roberts' talks, and through them I will continue to learn.

Finally, by way of a postscript, let me recommend the Conference to you dear reader, for it's open to Christians from all denominations.