John to ride the Via Beata for homelessness charity
May 14, 2021
Pentecost Novena on the Care of Creation
May 14, 2021
This week sees the start of 11 days of the ecumenical global prayer initiative They Kingdom Come for 2021, that invites Christians around the world to pray for more people to come to know Jesus. Christians from more than 170 countries and 65 denominations have taken part.
Thy Kingdom Come runs between Ascension and Pentecost, and this year takes place from May 13-23.
During the 11 days of Thy Kingdom Come, it is hoped that everyone who takes part will:
- Deepen their own relationship with Jesus Christ
- Pray for 5 friends or family to come to faith in Jesus
- Pray for the empowerment of the Spirit that we would be effective in our witness
What started in 2016 as an invitation from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Church of England has grown into an international and ecumenical call to prayer.
It now has the support of all the main leaders of key denominations in the UK, including the Methodist Church of Great Britain, Catholic Church of England and Wales, Pentecostal Churches, Free Churches, Orthodox Churches and the Church of Scotland. It has also been commended by Her Majesty the Queen and His Holiness Pope Francis.
Head of the Catholic Church in England & Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, said the movement upheld two key pillars of the Christian faith – praying to the Holy Spirit for people to come to know Jesus Christ and the role of the Holy Spirit as ‘God’s power’ sustaining the created world.
“It’s the Holy Spirit that transformed what we call the ‘chaos’ into the ‘cosmos’ – the ordered world. In caring for the world, we care for each other. In caring for each other, we care for the Creator and show Him our respect, our deference, our service.
“May ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ be a prayer from our hearts that the Holy Spirit transforms us into servants of the word and servants of the created world made through the word Himself.”
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said: “What excites me is that as we come together and pray for people to be filled with the Spirit, so they come to know and love Jesus Christ, to repent of their sins and turn away from all that is wrong and to find the love of Christ filling their hearts, we are in fact praying for the changing of our world.”
Pete Greig, founder of global prayer phenomenon 24-7 Prayer, said: “I would say to my fellow pastors, vicars and priests – in the busyness of all that we do, let this be the priority. Let us get behind this and let us have grace for one another in this, because I believe Jesus is calling us to pray. This has the marks of the Holy Spirit upon it.”
A wide range of resources are available on both the CBCEW and the Thy Kingdom Come websites:
https://www.cbcew.org.uk/home/events/thy-kingdom-come/
