Hundreds of Churches Sign Up to Pray for London

More than 200 churches across London have signed up to take part in a year-long prayer relay for the capital, and many more are set to join.

Since midnight 1 January 2007, London’s churches have united and will continue throughout the year in prayer with a theme of “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done”.

In every area of life and society for London, groups have been praying continuously in a relay for what will already stand at 264 hours by the end of 11 January.

The Year for London sees churches from all denominations and ethnicities across London take responsibility for a 24-hour period of prayer during which its congregants form smaller groups and pray together to fill up the time in their “individual church-relay”.

Some churches have taken multiple slots throughout the year to reveal their dedication to praying for a great change in London.

More than 100 people gathered for the first slot on January 1 at Jesus House, near Brent Cross, and the year-long relay was commenced successfully.

Organisers have said hundreds of people have already joined the prayer relay, with thousands more set to join in this month alone.

Participating churches are from across London from Uxbridge in the west, Croydon in the south, Haringey in the north and Plaistow in the east.

Dr Jonathan Oloyede of Glory House in East London, and one of the core members behind the movement, said, "We believe that prayer is crucial to transformation and prayer often precedes revival, as they say. A lot of prayer preceded the churches coming together and the churches becoming a vehicle for transformation.

"The idea is that we want to follow Scriptures by praying through things first and through that, through prayer, transformation can begin to take place.

"Secondly, through united prayer churches can begin to discover each other through the different areas, different regions. The black Pentecostal churches can begin to unite with the white evangelical churches, with the Catholic churches, the Anglican churches.

"When we begin to have the churches unite at the local level, the micro level, then we can begin to see the church as a medium for change.

"What has happened up till now is that the churches have been working in isolation. The churches need to begin to work together in unity."

Every church in London is called to join the massive event, which is unprecedented for the capital in its magnitude.

Daniel Blake (Christian Today)