WEEK OF PRAYER FOR PARLIAMENT 2009

Next week see's the start of the Week of Prayer for Parliament.  Churches around the country, groups around London, and those working in Westminster and Whitehall will be involved in prayer meetings, rhythms of prayer and continuous 24-7 prayer rooms all focused on prayer for parliament, politics and politicians. 

Phil Togwell, UK Leader of 24-7 Prayer writes:



"It would have been impossible to pick a more significant time to be praying in the Houses of Parliament and the Whitehall departments, with those who work there and are trying to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven amidst all that is currently taking place.

It really is time to pray. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Week of Prayer for Parliament and Government next week had been somehow orchestrated for this particular moment!

From Monday 8th until Friday 12th June next week, Christians will be praying all over Westminster, and beyond... in offices and meeting rooms, up Big Ben and in St Mary’s Undercroft, in the Cabinet Office and the Home Office (and plenty of others), and in their local churches. Staff and researchers, MPs and Peers will gather to pray and worship inside the Parliament buildings. Others will come every morning to prayer-walk the whole Parliamentary estate. Together, we will seek God and God’s Kingdom... let your Kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Since I began working with 24-7 prayer in 2004, we’ve been helping our Christians in Parliament (CiP) and Christians in Government (CiG) friends to plan and run this annual week of prayer. This year, unsurprisingly, feels different. Perhaps the steady, persistent prayers are being answered... prayers that Light would expose and overcome darkness, prayers that righteousness and godly wisdom would prevail over greed and lust for power. Perhaps ‘this’ we are seeing is part of ‘that’ we, along with many others, have been praying?

Yesterday lunchtime, I was in Portcullis House with David Landrum and a room full of friends for the regular Christians in Parliament prayer meeting. It didn’t feel regular at all... there was nothing business-as-usual about our praying. It was urgent and desperate. And yet, as the hour unfolded, this desperation, this calling-on-God seemed to give way to faith to a new prophetic hope. In this end there is a new beginning.

Let us join together and pray for a new beginning for politics in our nation.

If you’d like to join me and many others who will be praying next week - either from where you are, or by coming into Westminster itself - click across to the CiP website (http://www.christiansinparliament.org.uk/) for a bundle of downloadable prayer guides and details of what's going on.

If you can make it, join us daily in Victoria Gardens at 10.30am for prayer walking."

You can find out more about Phil Togwell and the work of 24-7 Prayer at http://uk.24-7prayer.com/