Creator of Prayerdle puzzle set for CRE presentation

Creator of Prayerdle puzzle set for CRE presentation

It started out as a whim but now Prayerdle, based on the hugely popular Wordle daily puzzle, is attracting nearly 2000 daily challengers.

Clare Bryden (pictured), the Exeter-based website developer who created it, will demonstrate how it works at CRE South West on Wed 23 Feb. She admits the puzzle was an experiment to see how many related five-letter words she could find related to the devotional life.

‘But it has developed its own character,’ she told CRE News. ‘I realised it could have elements of Lectio Divina, a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer.’

Those taking part in Prayerdle’s daily challenge must solve the five-letter word of the day and Clare hopes it will become a bridge into prayer, with those taking part reflecting on the word during the day. Sometimes the answer will be a Greek, Hebrew, or Latin word and its meaning will need to be looked up. In her own daily life, as a member of the Exeter Cathedral community, she tries to maintain a routine of prayer, study and retreat. In fact, in her early 20s she contemplated becoming a nun, but instead returned to energy-environment consultancy and followed that with nine years in the Met Office in Exeter. 

With a love for both singing (she is in several first-rate chamber choirs) and art (accidentally becoming an artist in the medium of knitted chemistry) she runs Websites Ahoy! and has regular comment articles and book reviews in newspapers and magazines reflecting her various interests.

Main image: Prayerdle creator Clare Bryden (photo by markburley.co.uk)

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