Oct 20, 2026 · 1 hr 6 min · 10 segments
A conversation with the Prayer Spaces in Schools team in Ireland and Karen Welch, a play therapist, helping to explore the idea of prayer that engages every generation and relearns the sacred art of…
Emma ScottGuestStephHostEmma ThompsonGuestKaren WelchGuestGirls, I wanted to pull you in on this topic because this month in liminal, we are discussing the theme of the field.
And for the discerning listener at home, you'll think, well, what has that got to do with prayer spaces in schools? But in liminal sort of Irish agricultural tradition.
I don't even know if that's a term, but it is now.
We have this beautiful picture of harvest time when it was time when the fields were ready to harvest.
The whole community got involved.
Everybody got a job.
Everybody had a part to play.
This is sort of beautiful picture of multi-generational participation.
And so efficiency went out the window.
It wasn't really about that.
It was about participation.
Everybody coming and lending their hands, whether you were someone who could no longer do the physical work of harvesting.
And so you were cooking and cleaning or singing or telling stories to the youngest coming out into the fields and helping along.
Everybody took part.
And I just thought that's a gorgeous picture of sort of the holistic way of the kingdom that that every age, every generation has a part to play.
And I can't think of a more beautiful way for a prayer movement to involve children than to create spaces for them where they get to come and participate and they get to come and play and have a part and not just create spaces for them, but allow them to create spaces as well where they get to encounter Jesus through prayer.
So I'd love for us to just chat through that a little bit this morning.
I'd love if one or both of you could give me an idea of how prayer spaces and schools came about.
So actually 1999, simultaneously four people were approached by schools to host prayer spaces.
Well, prayer rooms is probably what they would have called them because they were just along the 24-7 prayer kind of... idea um in their local schools and so they were like secondary school primary school faith school non-faith school so they were really kind of good cross-section of different schools so that was back in 1999 and they were within a few months of each other and i actually at the time was an intern to phil togwell who is the national international director of press bases in schools now at the time he was the gb director of 24-7 career And I just remember being in a meeting in bank and in a coffee shop and just being like, is there something happening here? What is happening? Is this a coincidence? Is this a God incidence? I think there might be something to this.
Back in 1999, it wasn't that we had a grand plan for let's do this in schools.
Girls, I wanted to pull you in on this topic because this month in liminal, we are discussing the theme of the field.
And for the discerning listener at home, you'll think, well, what has that got to do with prayer spaces in schools? But in liminal sort of Irish agricultural tradition.
I don't even know if that's a term, but it is now.
We have this beautiful picture of harvest time when it was time when the fields were ready to harvest.
The whole community got involved.
Everybody got a job.
Everybody had a part to play.
This is sort of beautiful picture of multi-generational participation.
And so efficiency went out the window.
It wasn't really about that.
It was about participation.
Everybody coming and lending their hands, whether you were someone who could no longer do the physical work of harvesting.
And so you were cooking and cleaning or singing or telling stories to the youngest coming out into the fields and helping along.
Everybody took part.
And I just thought that's a gorgeous picture of sort of the holistic way of the kingdom that that every age, every generation has a part to play.
And I can't think of a more beautiful way for a prayer movement to involve children than to create spaces for them where they get to come and participate and they get to come and play and have a part and not just create spaces for them, but allow them to create spaces as well where they get to encounter Jesus through prayer.
So I'd love for us to just chat through that a little bit this morning.
I'd love if one or both of you could give me an idea of how prayer spaces and schools came about.
So actually 1999, simultaneously four people were approached by schools to host prayer spaces.
Well, prayer rooms is probably what they would have called them because they were just along the 24-7 prayer kind of... idea um in their local schools and so they were like secondary school primary school faith school non-faith school so they were really kind of good cross-section of different schools so that was back in 1999 and they were within a few months of each other and i actually at the time was an intern to phil togwell who is the national international director of press bases in schools now at the time he was the gb director of 24-7 career And I just remember being in a meeting in bank and in a coffee shop and just being like, is there something happening here? What is happening? Is this a coincidence? Is this a God incidence? I think there might be something to this.
Back in 1999, it wasn't that we had a grand plan for let's do this in schools.
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