{"id":148021,"date":"2026-10-14T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=148021"},"modified":"2026-10-14T18:15:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T22:15:38","slug":"church-times-c-of-e-commission-issues-guidelines-for-prayer-ministry-to-counter-abuse-and-self-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=148021","title":{"rendered":"(Church Times) C of E Commission issues guidelines for prayer ministry to counter abuse and \u2018self-deception\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The dangers of conflating God\u2019s voice with a human one and letting prayer ministry turn into a form of control, even unintentionally, are among the issues explored in a new guide to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/prayer\">prayer<\/a> from Church House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The guide, <em>Lord, Teach Us to Pray: Prayer in pastoral settings and guidelines for good practice<\/em> (Church House Publishing), was developed in partnership with specialists from the Faith and Public Life team, with advice and input from others, including victims and survivors of abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The background to its production is \u201cthe realisation that churches have not always got it right when it comes to prayer and pastoral care\u201d, the introduction says. \u201cAt the extreme end, practices like conversion therapy have deeply damaged and wounded people struggling to understand themselves and their identity before God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut there have been other questions asked, about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/safeguarding\">safeguarding<\/a> and how victims of abuse might be treated, and more generally about the ways in which prayer may be used to push certain agendas and beliefs, in ways that can be experienced as harmful and distressing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/articles\/2026\/16-october\/news\/uk\/c-of-e-commission-issues-guidelines-for-prayer-ministry-to-counter-abuse-and-self-deception\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The dangers of conflating God\u2019s voice &#x1f4ac; with a human one and letting prayer ministry &#x1f64f; turn into a form of control, even unintentionally, are among the issues explored in a new guide to prayer from the C of E\u2019s Faith and Order Commission. #ChurchTimes https:\/\/t.co\/W4RiuHaRlo<\/p>&mdash; Church Times (@ChurchTimes) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChurchTimes\/status\/2110387864550711400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The dangers of conflating God\u2019s voice with a human one and letting prayer ministry turn into a form of control, even unintentionally, are among the issues explored in a new guide to prayer from Church House. The guide, Lord, Teach<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=148021\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,324,168,437,435,184,436,177,188,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-church-of-england","category-ethics-moral-theology","category-ministry-of-the-laity","category-ministry-of-the-ordained","category-parish-ministry","category-pastoral-care","category-pastoral-theology","category-spiritualityprayer","category-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148021"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148026,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148021\/revisions\/148026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}