Dear friends,
https://www.thykingdomcome.global/
Our Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is inviting Christians around the world to pray as one for people to know Jesus Christ, you might like to check out ideas for this wave of prayer through using the link above. One interesting question on the webpage asks "How do you talk to God? Do you find somewhere quiet and private and whisper, or do you climb a mountain and shout into the clouds?"
May's celebration of Ascension might be encouragement to us to shout into the clouds! And ongoing crises, international tensions, our incapacity to secure peace, care for our world or feed our poor, gives us plenty to rail against. Yet whilst the direction of our prayer is indeed Godward, it is we who speak the prayer and if we don't pray we are not in touch with our own wants or needs nor able to do for others as we would have them to for ourselves, that golden rule of Christian discipleship. As God surely hears us, so should we listen to what we say and in speaking of our hopes, in speaking of our thanks, we, in God given grace, find strength to make our prayer a reality both for ourselves and for others.
The daily prayer of Christian discipleship as the text of our website link https://www.thykingdomcome.global/ is derived from Jesus' Judaic heritage, the Kaddish prayer, "May He establish His Kingdom during your life and during your days, and during the life of the whole household of Israel, even speedily and in a near time!" Attentive to Jesus' call on His disciples to be doers of His Word and teachings, we might helpfully add – the Kingdom at your hand and at mine, quickly and speedily may it come". So our prayer helps us to realise that hope, God's Kingdom come in our day, even at our hand. Voicing that prayer we determine with God's help to make it real, a kingdom of peace and justice for all, for the blessing of this world's poor.
Do join our global wave of prayer however you feel able from this Ascension Day, 25th May.
Yours in Christ.
Rev'd Brin Singleton
Rector
