Last week, in the space of 48 hours, we received an enquiry from a church leader in Australia who wanted permission to use the stunning prayer station artwork from Revd Chris Duffett in a prayer meeting; an email from a group of women from Northern India, committed to praying throughout the 11 days; an email from a church volunteer in Bulgaria planning a series of daily, ecumenical, online prayer meetings and someone who had just come across TKC who wanted to be involved this year, from the Solomon Islands!
This, in a nutshell, sums up Thy Kingdom Come, a global wave of prayer, that irrespective of wherever you are in the world, whether you are participating as an individual, as a small group or as a church, whatever denomination you are from, you can join in!
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This year, we have been so heartened by the depth of international take up of Thy Kingdom Come including this year’s Novena – available in a record number of languages including Portuguese, Hindi, German, Russian, Dutch and Korean to name a few.
Similarly, the ecumenical Prayer Journal, was also translated into Dutch, and for the first time ever, a country, Scotland, has its own version, featuring national ecumenical voices from across the land (the front cover even has a dash of tartan for good measure!)
From India to Brazil, to Sri Lanka to America, Korea to Bulgaria –events and services are being organised far and wide including planned beacon events in Australia, South Korea and Bangladesh.
In the UK, daily we are seeing lots of churches and networks of all sizes, share their plans for this year as we gear up to pray as one ‘Come Holy Spirit.’ From a Beacon event in Exeter Diocese to continuous prayer gathering in Bristol, from prayer walking in London to 24 hours of prayer in Tenbury Wells – from a prison in Wales, to a Youth Prayer Event in Bradford, this is a tiny snippet of what is unfolding this year.
Several organisations are set to take part, including Transform Work- an ecumenical Christian workplace membership group; The Defence Christian Network- the multi-denominational network for military personnel & MoD civil servants, and Mothers Union – with all three, respectively, hosting daily online prayer meetings across their international networks. UK Catholic Schools agency - The Mark Mission 10, have also produced a Catholic schools video on the Ascension, which will be viewed by approx. 50,000 primary school-aged children and Christian Aid, are planning a London Prayer Walk during TKC, which this year coincides with Christian Aid Week.
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