Bay Area seminary planning prayer chapel at Assembly

Because an assembly can seem overwhelming in terms of important agendas and dockets and meetings and busyness, little time is left for peace, prayer, quiet, a SFTS spokesman notes. “Our prayer chapel will be there for those needing “a ‘sabbath’ space,” says Samuel Hamilton-Poore, SFTS director of the program in Christian spirituality
The Prayer Chapel is being created and designed by the Program in Christian Spirituality in partnership with the Spiritual Formation Task Force of the San Jose Presbytery.
“We’re pleased at SFTS to be able to serve the General Assembly by providing this quiet space for prayer,” says Phil Butin, seminary president. “In committee work, plenary sessions, and other gatherings, commissioners seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the will of Christ. But they also need a place where they may go to sit and pray about the decisions facing them.”
The chapel opens on Friday, June 20 at 11:30 am. It will be open most days from 8:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. and after general sessions, as well as throughout the week, except during certain plenary sessions and worship services.
The Prayer Chapel will be staffed by spiritual directors, who will be available for anyone who would like to talk or pray with someone confidentially. In addition, other chapel hosts will be student, graduate, and faculty volunteers from the Program in Christian Spirituality. There always will be two volunteers present — one to “hold the space” in contemplative quiet, and a spiritual director, to be available to any commissioner or visitor who would like someone with whom to talk or pray.
“Spiritual direction is a ministry of one person assisting another or others in paying attention and responding to the presence or movement of God,” explained Hamilton-Poore. Since 1994, SFTS has offered graduate-level training in the ministry of spiritual direction.