Table of Contents

Introduction Part One: Growing Into Prayer Early Years A Praying Community Experiments with Prayer New Encounters Some Awkward Questions Part Two: Aspects of Prayer The Everlasting Arms - Prayer as Upholding Finding a Way - Prayer as Guidance and Discernment Leaving the Comfort Zone - Prayer as Challenge Dogged Persistence - Prayer as Importuning God Asking for What you Need - Prayer as Petition Breaking Free - Prayer as Repentance A Burning in the Bones - Prayer as Resistance A Precious Habitation - Prayer as Being Part Three: Bedrock of Faith A Cupboard of Delights Ground of our Being or Ancient of Days? Power Beyond Ourselves Reweaving the Broken Web Living the Good News We Are Free and kept Alive by Hope

About the Author

Helen Steven's journey in prayer and activism starts in Scotland. She is a graduate of Glasgow University and taught history in Glasgow for seven years. In 1972 she went to Vietnam as part of a Quaker project working in orphanages in Saigon, along with Ellen Moxley, who is now Helen's lifelong partner. These two years were a life changing experience and committed Helen to working for peace. Brought up in the Church of Scotland, Helen was inspired by the way Quakers put their faith into practical action, and she became a member of the Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) in 1976. In 1979 Helen was employed by the Iona Community as their justice and peace worker, and, inspired by the commitment to social action of the Iona Community, she became a member of the Community in 1981. Supported by the Iona Community and Quaker Peace and Service, Helen and Ellen started Peace House, a residential centre in central Scotland. 12 years and 10,000 guests later they left Peace House, and Helen founded the Scottish Centre for Nonviolence in Dunblane. Helen's work for peace has taken her to NATO headquarters in Brussels, to many international conferences, to demonstrations at Faslane naval base, and occasionally to prison. In 2004 she and Ellen were awarded the Gandhi International Peace Prize.