The Youth gathering at Lambeth Palace

On the 15th of May, 60 young people descended onto The Great Hall at Lambeth Palace where it turned into a bespoke gaming zone, full of all things Mario Kart, Just Dance, and Fifa (just to name a few!). We gathered to celebrate the start of the Thy Kingdom Come Prayer Movement, an 11-day ecumenical prayer movement that takes place between Ascension Day and Pentecost.

This year, for the second year in a row, Tom and I created a Digital Detox Prayer Journal for young people to explore and use during the 11-days. Each day there was a piece of scripture for them to explore, and a response activity to help them engage. Each day they were invited to ‘detox’ from their devices, laying down their phones, tablets, or any other distraction that might get in the way of them connecting intentionally with God.

The evening at Lambeth started with an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, where she shared openly about her own relationship with tech and the online world, whilst highlighting the many amazing apps and online resources out there to help strengthen our faith. She prayed for us all and took the time to meet the young people and youth groups that were present.

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We then moved into a time of gaming and eating great food together! I must admit that I’m not sure my skillset stretches to video games, but I gave it my best shot. After a while, we gathered back together to begin a time of sung worship. We turned off the consoles and invited everyone in the room to enter a time of ‘digital detox’, turning off their devices, so that we could be fully present with each other and with God. Young people explored the Digital Detox Journals, making their way through them at their own pace.

It was incredibly special to witness young people from youth groups across London, coming together and being united with a desire to explore this thing called ‘faith’ without any pressure, and especially amazing to do so in a room steeped in history. I did wonder, whilst looking around The Great Hall, whether the architects that built the incredible space had ever envisioned it being decked out with bean bags and games consoles – I think we can safely conclude that they did not!

What a special evening spent with some amazing young people. Although Thy Kingdom Come 2026 has been and gone, I wonder if we can continue to challenge ourselves to ‘detox’ from the distractions in our own lives daily, even for 5 minutes, to press ‘pause’ on the relentless of the digital world, and to reconnect with our creator.