Prayer beads benefit church, troops

By Wanda A. Adams
Assistant Features Editor

Volunteers from St. Clement's Episcopal Church made prayer beads for troops serving in the war against Iraq. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

This week, parishioners at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in Makiki met several times for work-and-prayer parties, and delivered the prayer beads they made to military chaplains, who in turn passed them out to soldiers who left Schofield Barracks on Tuesday and sailors leaving from Pearl Harbor yesterday.

It's their way of offering support and comfort to those who may soon be in harm's way. And they know it works because prayer beads have been passed from hand to hand within the congregation for months.

The Rev. Liz Zivanov, rector of the parish, explained that the custom of using strung beads or knotted string came into the Anglican tradition in the 1980s through the efforts of Praxis, a contemplative prayer group in the American Southwest that spent years exploring ways to deepen their spiritual lives. They are credited with reclaiming this method for Protestantism.

The prayer bead practice they designed is based on a short 33-bead round joined with a cross or crucifix. Unlike the Roman Catholic rosary, in which specific prayers are assigned to each bead, the Anglican tradition — which, Zivanov says, "tends to be pretty flexible — allows the individual to assign their own prayers to each bead. It's common for people to combine the Lord's Prayer with shorter invocations.

Zivanov carries prayer beads in her pocket at all times and she often gives them to people she counsels — "because they are small and tangible. They are something to hold on to."

The St. Clement's effort rose spontaneously out of the congregation, however, after the rector visited a parishioner who had a stroke and gave her some prayer beads. The parishioner found the beads comforting and, when she recovered, learned how to make the beads and gathered some friends in the church to begin stringing prayer beads on a weekly basis.

She is adamant that she wants no public attention, telling her pastor, "This is between God and me."

"It's great what's happened; they sit together and bead and talk and pray," Zivanov said. "But this parish is open to this sort of thing — open to be used and to let their faith work in their lives. That's just wonderful to see."

Another member of the congregation read of Roman Catholics who were giving "Range Rosaries" to soldiers and said, "why can't we do something like that here?" She called a military chaplain at Schofield who liked the idea but asked what the church planned to charge for the beads. When he heard that they were free, he was delighted. "The military gives a lot to the community but apparently they rarely get anything offered to them. It's amazing how they've just been jumping on it since that call went out," Zivanov said.

For the local military, the St. Clement's group produced a custom-designed shorter version of the classic 33-bead Anglican rosary. These smaller "chaplets" consist of a cross, a bead that invites the user to prayer, two larger beads and 14 smaller ones — it's small enough to fit in a pocket and to apply pressure with fingers inconspicuously. The pressure of the fingers on the beads is meant to keep the attention from wandering during prayer.

Another member of the congregation, an Army major who meditates on scripture when he's on deployment, contributed a line of scripture that's included on cards that accompany each chaplet: Psalms 31:3 — "You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name's sake, lead me and guide me."

The cards also encourage military personnel not to worry about using the chaplet "the right way," but just to "say what you need to say" and hold on to the beads so they know they're not alone, that they're being prayed for even as they pray.

The chaplets are made from dark beads that won't catch light and possibly give away a soldier's position, and they're tightly beaded so they don't make noise.

Zivanov said: "We want it to be a very nice, soft comfort for them."