Bridge Prayer

“Bridge Prayer” is a prayer model that is used in Wittenberg 2017 gatherings.  The name has two meanings:

​It is a short prayer time that “bridges” two longer prayer sessions.
It is a scripture-based prayer model that “bridges” liturgical prayer traditions and free or spontaneous prayer traditions by combining both in one prayer time.

There will be fifteen times of Bridge Prayer over the five days of the Wittenberg 2017 gathering – some in the middle of the night, others during daytime sessions.  Each one will be focused on praying from a particular scripture related to that day’s themes.  We encourage you to get “up to speed” on Bridge Prayer, so that you can engage quickly and deeply when you’re in Wittenberg!

---

Prayer Room “Flow”

In a typical “house of prayer” format, a team will lead for two hours, then another team will take over for the next two hours, and so forth – with an understanding of how to manage the transition from one team to the next.  For example, the Kansas City IHOP has trained their teams to replace the musicians one at a time, so that the flow of Harp & Bowl worship can continue from one session to the next.
 
When prayer teams are coming from different streams of the body of Christ, with different prayer traditions, this transition from team to team can be difficult.  We see this as an opportunity to have the teams work together to lead a short Bridge Prayer time focused on a single scripture.  When Bridge Prayer is used as the transition between two teams, the flow of the prayer room looks like this:
​

click image to view larger

A liturgical model combined with free praise & prayer
is used, so that both Roman Catholic (or other liturgical) teams and harp & bowl (or other free church) teams can easily work together.

Bridge Prayer Team

Every Bridge Prayer session is led by a team of three people
The leadership roles are:​

1. The Bell Ringer serves as the timekeeper​

2. The Music Leader leads praise & worship

3. The Prayer Leader leads prayer​

We encourage the Music Leader to be drawn from one team, and the Prayer Leader from the other.  The Bell Ringer can come from either team.  This way, the two teams demonstrate unity as they lead together.  They also need to meet beforehand to get to know each other and prepare for the Bridge Prayer time that they will co-lead, which encourages relationships to develop.

Bridge Prayer Structure​

Bridge Prayer is very simple to lead or participate in, but it actually has twelve distinct components!  These are:

1.    Trinitarian Declaration
2.    Opening Collect
3.    Silence
4.    Scriptural Antiphon
5.    Free Praise & Worship
6.    Scripture 
7.    Responsorial
8.    Free Prayer & Intercession
9.    Maranatha with Antiphon
10.  Free Ministry / Prayer / Praise
11.  Closing Collect
12.  Trinitarian Seal & Amen

The images below show how these twelve components appear in a single Bridge Prayer: ​

click image to view larger

For a more in-depth look at the structure of Bridge Prayer:

​The training video of the structure explains each of these twelve components. 

The training video of the example Bridge Prayer session

shows each of these 12 components in a single prayer time. 

back to top

Training Videos

Bridge Prayer was developed by the Christ the Reconciler http://www.christthereconciler.org 
a community of Catholics & Protestants in Texas.  They have put together a series of videos to introduce Bridge Prayer and prepare both leaders and participants for the gathering in Wittenberg. 

The training videos reference these two handouts, which you can download and view/print while you watch the videos.​

handout.pdf
File Size:	1324 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

bridge_prayer_for_training.pdf
File Size:	192 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

Introduction & Overview

History & Purpose of Bridge Prayer – Amy Cogdell

Team & Structure of Bridge Prayer – Thomas Cogdell

Combining Liturgical & Free Prayer – George Miley

Training for Leaders

The Bell Ringer – Thomas Cogdell

The Music Leader – Michael Michel

The Prayer Leader – Thomas Cogdell

Training for Participants

Bridge Prayer Participants – Michael Michel

Example Bridge Prayer

Example Prayer Session – Michael Michel, Thomas Cogdell, Dori Doyle, & the Christ the Reconciler community

Prayer Leader “Grid”

The handout includes a good tool to help the Prayer Leader choose how to lead the time of Free Prayer & Intercession.  It is a grid that provides an easy way to clearly instruct the participants in the room for how to pray:

click image to view larger

This tool is not specific to Bridge Prayer, but has been effectively used in other contexts as well, including the section of Harp & Bowl prayer where the leader invites the room to enter into prayer … “Rapid Fire Prayer” is not the only possibility!

---

back to top