Proposed Garden of Prayer and Blessing in the grounds of St Peter’s

A prayer garden can be a space that we retreat to for respite from our everyday lives. It is a place of quiet contemplation, reflection, meditation, solitude, peace, and inspiration. It is a place to enjoy the presence of God, inviting the beauty and quiet of the garden to speak to your spirit. At St Peters we are especially blessed as it affords wonderful views over the harbour and the city. Prayer invites the Holy Spirit to direct us, to provide comfort, and it helps us to feel God’s amazing love which brings peace, reassurance, and joy to our hearts.

A prayer garden can also be a community outreach, particularly with the location in Watson’s Bay, next to Gap Park. We hope that it will help those who stop a while in the garden who are going through a hard time, and we will be working with Woollahra Council and Lifeline to see if we can direct people in need to come into our prayer garden.

In Isaiah 43:19, God says “I am making a way in the desert, and streams in the wasteland”. His declaration is that He is taking what is barren and making it fruitful. We believe that this prayer garden aligns with this expression of God’s heart, through prayer and worship that rises up from the prayer garden God will release the rivers of His life into our community and into the world.

At this stage we invite anyone with skill sets or contacts or ideas who can assist with our Prayer Garden in a practical way to contact Irene Jackson, Doreen Laforest or Matt Aroney. We are looking to source hardwood benches, and later on for teams of workers to assist with the actual installation of the benches, sourcing and planting of plants which will enhance the garden, and gardening work in the grounds of St Peters so that some of the benches can be placed in sheltered locations near trees. We are at the stage of working out the costing of the project, and we will welcome donations at a later stage.

We are very excited about this new SHAP project, and hope that as a community we can bring it to fruition so that it will continue to bless generations to come.