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Prayer for mission together
Prayer has always been a key part of Churches Together.
Not only does unity and mission find inspiration in the John 17 prayer of Jesus, but it is embodied in the 'Our' Father as we pray for the coming kingdom.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, has a long tradition in Churches Together going back more than a hundred years. Many Churches Together groups observe the week, either in January or in May, and organise prayer meetings, pulpit swaps, special services and extra events to bring Christians of different traditions together in prayer.
This is now a world wide movement and a different country choose the theme each year. 
The theme for 2012 is 'We will be changed', and the material is available from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
The material for the 2012 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is here.
The UK Prayer Forum is a network with roots in the Evangelical Alliance which networks a number of national, regional and local prayer initiatives for mission. Jane Holloway is the person who heads the prayer networks for both Hope and More than Gold - both organisations having agreed from the start they they needed to see prayer going before, during and after any mission initiative.
Information about the networks, ideas and resources from Hope re prayer are here.
Information about the networks, ideas and resources from More than Gold re prayer are here.
The UK Prayer Forum has links with the wider Global Day of Prayer which often takes the Lord's Prayer as the basis of bringing Christians together at Pentecost, sometimes uses a football stadium in London for a national gathering. Global Day of Prayer UK resources for 2012 are here. The worldwide fellowship of Christians linked to Global Day of Prayer will be
praying for the Olympic Games in 2012.
Torch Relay prayer. One of the plans during the torch relay is to accompany it with prayer. Networks will pray as communities come together, and as churches work together in mission to serve the celebrations. One network has a plan to provide a prayer bus which will be open top for Christian worship bands to play from, and from which Christians will pray for the light of Jesus to shine.
Most of the prayer initiatives above are a resource for churches working together. Indeed most 'prayer for mission' initiatives celebrate the fact that Christians come together from different traditions and see it as a key part of their prayer for the nation and coming kingdom of God for which they pray.
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Jim Currin, 17/01/2012 |
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