Three Simple Ways to Pray Through Thy Kingdom Come
This year marks the 10th year of Thy Kingdom Come - a global ecumenical prayer movement that invites Christians worldwide to pray from Ascension to Pentecost for people to know know Jesus.
As we pray to Pentecost, we have three simple but meaningful ways to engage: prayer walking, praying for five, and running a prayer vigil.
It’s been so encouraging checking out different areas of our Diocese in the Holy Here app – it’s great to see so many people taking up Bishop Ana’s call to cover every home, street and neighbourhood in prayer. Keep going – and please do share your stories with us!
In Newlands-Paparārangi, for example, Easter Sunday has always been a relatively quiet affair with parishioners travelling to be with their families, and we’ve never really had visitors turning up just because it’s Easter. This year we didn’t do anything hugely different in terms of publicity, but somehow our numbers for Easter Sunday (and the following Sunday – low Sunday) were nearly three times that of previous years. I was slightly baffled by this, and mentioned to someone that we’d not done anything different – until they pointed out that we’ve been going all out praying for our suburb. God is good!
This year we are also continuing the encouragement to get every person in your parish praying for five people to come to know the joy and freedom of Jesus – this is a rhythm many of us know well. Running a prayer vigil is also a great way to engage your church in prayer, even if you’re only able to cover a 24 hour period. I’d love to encourage you to partner with local churches – whether they’re in your cluster, or churches of other denominations near you – together, could you pray for 48 hours, or even the full 10 days?
You’ll find a bunch of information and resources on our website to help you as you prayer walk, pray for five, and run prayer vigils - including printable prayer walking prompt cards (these would be great to use with your family!), and a Spotify playlist.
Rev Richard Apperley
