For England - Together Forum
20-22 July 2010 - River Church, Newham
For England - Together is a relational network of 'leaders with a heart for prayer' that spans all the denominations across every county, city & town of England. The leaders represent different churches, organisations & networks. Historically there have been biannual forums (since 2004) usually meeting at Swanwick, Derbys with a very open agenda, to seek God in worship & prayer. This year the Forum moved into East London and were hosted by River Church and Transform Newham.
129 delegates came from all over England (and 1 from Scotland) in response to the Lords invitation to gather to make a place for His presence in Newham: so that the purposes of God can be fulfilled not only for England and the nations of the British Isles but that His presence will impact all who come to our nations in these next years. As a result of the prayer partnership between Transform Newham and Nottingham Prayer Network, the worship team from Nottingham led the worship, warfare and prayer in each session. The facilitating team was Jane Holloway, Ian Cole, Lloyd Cooke, Molly Osborne, Jonathan Oloyede.
The theme pursued throughout the two days was His presence - making room for His presence individually, releasing more of His presence into London and the nation. We heard stories of how God is mobilising prayer globally & nationally. We prayed and worshipped over and into East London, London and the nation. We had focussed times of worship & prayer into different areas of the life of our nation including government, The Queen and Royal Family and family life. We prayed into the vision to hold a national prayer event at Wembley stadium in 2011 and into plans to develop the River Church site.
Two different locations for prayer walking were identified by local leaders:
- The River Lea prayer walk went to the Ironworks. East India Doc, Trinity Buoy Wharf and prayed into historical events in order to free for the present and future.
- The Stratford Olympic Park walk prayed at the River Lea; at the edge of the Stratford Langthorne Abbey which had stood for 400 years on the site on which the Tablighi Jamaat want to build a Mega Mosque; on the Greenwich Meridan and then on at the edge of the Olympic Park where the new Olympic Stadium stands.
We looked ahead to events planned in 2011-2014, recognising that we need to find new ways of travelling together in unity to mobilise prayer for all that is about to take place in connection with the Olympic Games and other sporting events and through initiatives such as More than Gold www.morethangold.org.uk and Hope www.hopetogether.org.uk. Delegates were asked to engage with conversations that will take place in the autumn as to how we can best achieve this.
Wish to visit/pray at the Stratford Olympic Park? The Olympic Delivery Authority operates a free 90 minute tour of Park on weekends. Book 0300 2012 001- or travel to Pudding Mill Lane on Docklands Light Railway and access the viewing platform of Olympic Park.
Jane
Holloway
World Prayer Centre, 5 Ethel Street, Birmingham
B2 4BG
www.worldprayer.org; www.prayerforum.org; www.prayeralert.net
