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Rev Ned Lunn, Canon for Intercultural Mission and the Arts at Bradford Cathedral reflects on creativity and prayer to celebrate 55 years of Prayer for the Day, from Bradford the City of Culture.

Good morning.

Creativity is often imagined as wild and unbound — a free-flowing river of possibility. But I’ve come to know as both artist, and disciple, that creativity flourishes not in chaos, but in constraint. Writing poetry — especially sonnets — teaches me this. Their form is a vessel, not a cage. In metre and rhyme, I discover what I truly need to say.

A blank canvas can paralyse. Limitless choice becomes a burden. Form, rhythm, and rule, offer a pathway. Constraint is not the enemy of imagination but its companion.

For me, the daily office that I say at Bradford Cathedral, is such a holy constraint. It is liturgical scaffolding, within which my creative soul can play. In prayer, I’m drawn back to what matters. I listen, I yield, I remember. Prayer shapes my vision. It invites: choose well, choose wisely, choose what gives life.

Working in a cathedral in a busy city, I face a thousand invitations daily — what to read, what to say, what to make. Without prayer, I chase shadows. With prayer, I discern what is necessary, what is good, what will serve the Kingdom. I’m not seeking efficiency, but faithfulness. Prayer, gives contour to my calling. My art becomes not just expression, but service, witness, offering.

Holy Spirit, Breath of Creation and Giver of Form, teach me, to welcome boundaries that bring life. Root my decisions in prayer, that I may know what to pursue and what to lay down. Let your presence be the frame in which I live and create. Shape my imagination into service, and my desires into worship. In Jesus’ name.

Amen.