PRAYER FOR ENGLAND

PLEASE PRAY FOR…

1 England is the most secular of the four countries that comprise the UK. The steady decline in belief and church
attendance is of deep concern. About 62% of the population has belief in God, 38% that Jesus is the Son of God, 23% that the Bible is
the unique Word of God, 16% visit a church during the course of a year and 11% at least once a month. Nominalism and notional
Christianity are enormous challenges. A nodding acquaintance with the structures and trappings of Christianity and basking in the
afterglow of Christian influence anaesthetize the majority. Pray that the Holy Spirit may break down the barriers and bring a sense of
the holiness of God.
2 London is one of the world’s hub cities for finance, travel, politics, etc. The spiritual life of London — or lack of it — impacts the
world. It is also the destination of a high proportion of the inflow of migrants over the past 50 years. Pray for:
a) Inner-city church planting. Relatively few successful models exist — a few are the Ichthus Fellowship with growing
congregations in southeast London, the International Christian Centre (Nigerian-led) in east London and multi-ethnic Kensington
Temple in central London. Pray for the city to be effectively evangelized.
b) Ethnic minorities are increasingly becoming the majority in many London boroughs. Over 50% of church-goers in London are
non-indigenous. London is the home of nearly all the UK Bangladeshis (the largest concentration in the world outside their
homeland), Kurds and Turks and these constitute some of its least reached peoples.
3 England’s inner cities have become physical and spiritual wastelands, riddled with drugs and crime. Dying congregations, closed
churches and churches converted into Muslim mosques, Hindu temples or Sikh godwaras are commonplace. Pray that God may raise
up an army of workers with effective ways of meeting the many needs of these multilingual, multi-cultural areas.