No Extraordinary Power: Prayer, Stillness and Activism

Faced with something they believe must

be changed, ordinary people can find the

power to “reconstitute the world”, as the

poet Adrienne Rich has put it. And yet this

is apparently beyond our own resources.

Helen Steven asks:

Do we have access through prayer and

action to some kind of “extra-ordinary”

power beyond ourselves?

Where does that “still, small voice”

come from, tugging at the heartstrings,

annoyingly imperative and brooking no

refusal?

Drawing from her experience as a peace

activist, a Quaker and a member of the

Iona Community, Helen Steven sets out to

find how prayer can work to achieve the

unexpected within ourselves and in the world.