Bedern Chapel

This rather simple chapel is located down a little alleyway off York’s Goodramgate. It is called Bedern Chapel and dates to 1349 when the Vicars Choral lived in this area, who sang the prayers and masses in the Minster on behalf of the canons. It comes from the Old English bede meaning prayer and ærn which denoted house. Although churches are sometimes called Houses of Prayer and it was an expression used to denote the Jerusalem Temple by both Isaiah and the Lord Jesus, we should also make our homes houses of prayer, too. My own prayer life is sometimes lacking; I am too distracted, too busy, too tired. Yet the discipline of dedicating a particular time of day to speaking with the Lord is a good one and particularly wholesome. If your home is not a Bedern, your church is not likely to be one either.

And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. 1 Kings 9:3