When the Church Gets it Wrong about Prayer

Amy Persons Parkes, an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, serves as a minister at Maple Grove United Church of Canada. An honours graduate of Huntingdon College (B.A.) and Emory University (M. Div.), Amy focused her academic work on both writing and pastoral care & counseling. Her passion is in the area of faith development and spiritual formation, a passion nurtured by her completion of the Upper Room’s Two-Year Academy for Spiritual Formation and her ongoing soul-work with a spiritual director. A contributor to both the Abingdon Preaching Annual and the new Abingdon Creative Preaching Annual, Amy also reflects on a life in the Spirit through her blog An Everyday Mystic. As transplanted Southerners, Amy and her family live in Oakville, Ontario. With some bits of intentionality and much grace, Amy tries to grow beautiful flowers, to keep clean clothes in the closets, and to be open to God’s Spirit.