There is no panic in heaven!

A major part of our calling in WPC is to pray for many people in the world, probably the majority, who live in one form of crisis or another. The result of all this crisis is that millions of displaced people are desperately searching for safety and hope; children and young people are being used as trade-offs in evil negotiations and fear and panic grip many people's hearts even in so called affluent societies.

We also have a duty and privilege to remind everyone in every form of communication at our disposal, that Jesus Christ the Light of the world, is Sovereign over all. Today in this same world, the light of Christ is shining forth in the power of the Holy Spirit through the church - the Body of Christ, so that every day thousands upon thousands from every tribe, every people group, every religion and creed are becoming followers of Jesus.

Every day we, as part of God's family around the world, from the rising of the sun to its setting, join with countless millions worshiping and praising God. In every continent the Kingdom of God is advancing, light dispelling darkness, faith overcoming fear and praise replacing despair.

Today with you, we stand in unity with our brothers and sisters in this global village, in the Middle East, across Africa, across Asia, across the Western world and say together, that by His Grace and Mercy we are not slaves to fear, we are not controlled by the warmongers, the traffickers, the financial institutions, or any power in the heavens above, we are sons and daughters of our Father in whose Kingdom there is no panic.

Written by Ian Cole, World Prayer Centre

The Leprosy Mission, (TLM) an international Christian development organisation, diagnoses, treats and offers specialist care, including reconstructive surgery, to people affected by leprosy. Its aim is to help transform and empower the lives of people affected by leprosy.

Leprosy is a disease of poverty and as well as providing healthcare, TLM offers rehabilitation, education, vocational training, small business loans, housing and fresh water supplies and sanitation to tens of thousands of people each year. TLM provides a springboard to restored health, self-sufficiency and renewed hope. Its services are provided regardless of religion or ethnicity, promoting equality and social justice.

Please pray for TLM's work in Myanmar:

Give thanks that, in Myanmar

• 500 plus people affected by leprosy or disability have been trained and started income generation activities
• 200 people have received physiotherapy and assistive devices
• 1,027 people benefited from improved water supplies
• 700 people from improved sanitation in Eastern Shan State
• Give thanks that patients visiting Mawlamyine Christian Leprosy Hospital, in Mon State, Myanmar, can now wait for their treatment in a bright and airy room with comfortable seats. Thanks to funding from

Jersey Overseas Aid Commission, the new, spacious waiting rooms are part of the new outpatients department.

• Please pray for those patients who arrive at this specialist referral centre, over 6,200 of whom will be affected by leprosy and others with other disabilities, TB/HIV/Malaria and general patients. Pray that they will have the courage to come forward.
• Pray for people affected by leprosy from Eastern Shan State in Myanmar, many of whom were driven from their homes simply because they had leprosy. Pray against the stigma which still exists for people affected by leprosy. 3,000 new cases of leprosy are diagnosed each year in Myanmar and some are shunned and rejected because of the diagnosis. Pray that through education this stigma will be reduced and eradicated.
• Give thanks for the amazing work being done to rehabilitate the leprosy-affected into new villages and for wonderful supporters who enable The Leprosy Mission to provide medical care, health training and education about leprosy. Schools are also being built in partnership with other agencies to increase educational achievement in children.
• Pray that the Disability Resource Centres and drop-in centres elsewhere in Myanmar will be able to continue to provide physical rehabilitation through physiotherapy to overcome disabilities, as well as counselling and emotional support.
• Give thanks that in over 100 rural communities, 1,500 families affected by leprosy have been helped, including about 150 leprosy patients who have undergone reconstructive surgery.

Do you have a story to tell about how you prayed and God answered?

Our God is a good Father who wants what's best for His children. In Matthew 7:7 says, 'Ask and it shall be given to you', so when we are going through situations and we ask God for a breakthrough or a miracle and He answers, God wants us to testify for His Glory.

"Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world." (Isaiah 12:4-5)"

Our testimony of how God has answered our prayer can be just the encouragement that someone else in a similar situation needs to hear! It can help them to see that God is real, that He hears us when we call and if He did it for you He can do it for them too.

So... we want to hear about what answers to prayer you have had from God. We then want to share it on online so that others will be inspired to try prayer when there seems like there is nothing else to do.

If you have a story, send it to us along with your details to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or you can send via our social media with #shareprayer and we will contact you.

Let's start spreading some hope and love and the good news of Jesus through our answers to prayer!

The time is now – we are in a period of tremendous political, economic and social change in our nations. As Jehoshophat declares in 2 Chronicles 20 when Judah faced ruin and destruction –" O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you."

We believe we are in a new time of spiritual shaking and spiritual opportunity. We encourage every Christian to pray for new leadership and integrity in our politics, for protection on our economy and peace in our towns and cities. But we also pray for God to move in our nation and for His will to be done.

We are in a new time. A time of mercy, a time of shaking, a time for a deeper understanding of the gospel. We believe this is a historically significant watershed moment – for our nations and for Europe. It is therefore a time for more prayer. It is a time for packed out prayer meetings, for greater time for prayer in our small groups and bible studies and children's meetings and for stronger individual prayer. We will be providing prayer updates and focus to help increase the level of prayer.

It is time to pray. You will find our updated prayer for the nation based on the Lord's prayer. Use this and pass it on, it is a strong starting point for joint prayer for the nations. We would love to see churches use this in the coming weeks. Here are two more prayer points for you to think about.

Lord we pray for:

• A fresh revelation of Your sovereignty – we want a deeper understanding of Your hand on our nations. We want a deeper understanding of Your Lordship on our lives.
• Unity in the Church - we know there is fraction and confusion over the referendum, but we ask for unity of purpose and a deeper commitment to each other. Prepare us, Your Church, for the important tasks that lie ahead, heal our divisions and give us a shared passion for Your kingdom to come.

We are at a historical moment as a nation. We may be entering a long period of political and economic uncertainty. We also believe we are at a very significant moment spiritually. Jesus is Sovereign – 'In Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities and authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him.' Colossians 1:16.

In the WPC team some of us backed Remain, others backed Exit but all of us are united in saying we have prayed for Your will to be done and we have a deep peace that it has been.

We have prayed so often for God's spirit to break out. There have been extraordinary signs of this as God visits towns and cities, stirs up prayer and uses ordinary people to take the gospel on to the streets, into the schools, workplaces and universities. So this is a time for renewed prayer for the protection and blessing of our United Kingdom and for Europe. Here are some prayer points – please use them this week so we can stand united praying to see God move in our nation.

• Whether we voted in or out we declare You are Sovereign Lord over our nation and over the nations.
• We pray for wisdom for all our political leaders. We pray for grace, and integrity for every Christian MP that they will hear God's voice and be people of influence. We pray for people of God's appointment to lead our political parties and our nation.
• We pray for the Bank of England and City of London – protect us from people of evil intent, greed, theft and corruption and give real wisdom and integrity to those who manage our finances.
• We pray for unity in the Church. After this intense debate may we accept that people with different opinions to us are welcome and loved in the Body of Christ. We pray that the Church will be agents of reconciliation.
• We pray for Your church – that in these uncertain times it will know You are our rock in times of trouble and live and proclaim the good news of the Gospel in villages, towns and cities across the nation.
• We pray blessing on Europe, that the Gospel will flood the nations, remove the barriers and make the way for His kingdom to come to every nation on our Continent.

Download our revised Lord's prayer to pray after the EU referendum

WPC Teams were invited, by the Diocesan Prayer Advocate, Pauline Mack, to support a county-wide week of prayer. Originally planned for the week beginning 21 May it was rescheduled to take in the Archbishops call to prayer, Thy Kingdom Come, in the week before Pentecost Sunday.  We prayer walked the parts of the Severn where it flows into the county, and where it flows out, and strategic stretches of the Shropshire Union and Llangollen canals.

The first three days were a prayer walk from Bridgnorth to Ironbridge, which we felt was significant for many reasons. The theme of Jesus as a bridge recurred, and that God's people should be bridge-builders in their communities. In Ironbridge we saw, during evening worship, that we have a bridge of flesh and blood, and that He breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron, with His blood.

We prayed the 'Friday blessing' prayer from Ffald y Brenin, and/or a more comprehensive prayer crafted by Sarah Cawdell from Bridgnorth, on any significant bridge we came across (or under) on our walks, directing our words downstream so that the river carried the blessing (as in Ezekiel 47 – wherever the river flowed, there was life).

Another task was to go and pray at some of the ancient wells, such as ancient or not so ancient churches en-route, Buildwas and Haughmond Abbeys and the Roman city at Wroxeter. At Buildwas Abbey Chrissie reminded us of Psalm 74, "Lord turn your footsteps towards these ruins..." and on reading the psalm out loud there, were able to imagine the scenes during the dissolution of the monasteries and how the saints of old must have echoed the words in the psalm: "we are given no miraculous signs; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be." Were able to declare hope, referring to the Malcolm Duncan talks, about the new day coming.

The two scriptures that formed the basis for our prayer for the week were Psalm 63 v 1-5, and Isa.41 v 17-20, both of which talk about dry land – the opposite of what Shropshire is naturally, but which proved to be the case spiritually. But in praying blessing over the land and the people, the end in view was v.20: "that men may see and know, may consider and understand that the hand of God has done this, the Holy One of Israel." However, another scripture proved very directional during the week, and this came to light because John Gilman had done his homework! He pointed out that in the area we began, Highley, there had been mines, and felt that Paul Miller's word about the hatches was going to become relevant, which proved to be the case.

From the first evening in the 24-hour prayer room at Highley, the 'treasures in darkness' scripture came up (Isa.45 v 3) and this theme kept cropping up, even when we visited old friends in Newport to drop off a sewing-machine! Izzy said: "I have been praying this scripture for you all week: Daniel 2 v 20-23" Verse 22 says: He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.

The Task
Each 24-hour period from Tue 10th to Thu 19th was to be prayed through in 10 different locations. Churches had set up prayer spaces or rooms for this to take place.

As mentioned our work began with prayer walking, but we also did some prayer "motoring", joined in at the prayer rooms, sometimes filled empty slots in the rota and in one location, we set up and with Pauline Mack helped to make sure the 24-hours were covered in prayer.

The LORD gave us many opportunities to pray and bring prophetic encouragement to people or into localities which we trust will bear their fruit in due season. We met ministers who were feeling they wanted to give up and others who were pressing in to seek God for the transformation of their locality, church members whose hope was rekindled just because we turned up to pray, and were blessed in return as we prayed and worshipped with those who were alive and alert and praising God anyway in challenging situations.

The time in Shropshire was an exercise in flexibility. We never knew what to expect in any given situation, and very often we were praying with the ones and twos in little village churches, bringing much-needed encouragement. This we were glad to do. We feel we have been stretched and encouraged ourselves by the way God has resourced us and never let us down, renewing the streams of living water which as He promised have flowed out of us.

Chrissie & Colin
May 2016

On behalf of both the Pray for Scotland and Parliamentary Prayer Scotland teams, once again a huge 'thank you!' to everyone who played a part in making sure that the Shield completed its tour of the nation, that the river of blessing prayer flowed uninterrupted throughout Scotland over the 40 days, and that many joint prayer events involving folk from many different church backgrounds took place, in some cases for the first time.

Good reports and encouraging testimonies of the power of God at work are still coming in. We had already heard of a lady's healing from 3 years of back pain at the evening gathering in Stornoway during the Shield's tour, and have just heard of another healing from severe pain at the final evening event of the tour in Leith, Edinburgh on 4 May. It's not about the Shield, it's about God confirming His word in Psalm 133 that where brothers and sisters come together in unity of purpose - 'As One!' - He will command His blessing!

Please pray that the journey will continue -

• that many leaders and church folk will grasp this vision and continue to raise a prayer shield over their community;
• that there will be a rapid increase in the number of joint prayer events for communities and the nation takling place all over Scotland - we already know of one county where a new monthly joint meeting has been established following the tour - please pray it is well supported.
• ask God if you are meant to be one of those in your area taking the lead in mobilising joint prayer!

Bless you as you continue to pray for your community and our beloved nation!

We can't thank you enough for your support with Thy Kingdom Come, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York's invitation for all churches across England to pray for evangelism in the week leading up to Pentecost.

The call was taken up in the most extraordinary way by thousands of worshipping communities and tens of thousands of Christians. Churches up and down the country, from every tradition, and from inner-cities to rural areas, got involved with passion and joy. Both in the six centrally organised Beacon events and in many more local churches, cathedrals and churches responded to the invitation with grace, tenacity, vision – and most of all with faith.

Many churches hosted whole weeks of 24/7 prayer – some for the first time or in partnership with others. Some hosted prayer days, special events and half nights of prayer. Schools put on special assemblies, and engaged in other creative ways – for example, working with parishes on interactive prayer labyrinths.

The demand for tickets for the Beacon Events at Winchester, St Paul's, Durham and Canterbury Cathedrals was so great that overspill areas with big screens had to be organized.

Most encouraging though were the thousands of parish churches who joined with us to hold prayer and Beacon events. This happened further and wider than we ever could have expected – from the centre of England to the USA, from Bermuda to Brussels, from New Zealand to Israel. And it included everything from fresh expressions of church to chaplaincies, from right across the traditions. Every day dozens more stories continue to pour in – we know from diocesan champions that what we're hearing about nationally is only the tip of the iceberg.

And it didn't stop there. The desire to join this wave of prayer wasn't limited to the Anglican Church. There was support from within the Vatican, and the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales backed the call to prayer and encouraged local churches to join in.

The call has not only tapped into latent creativity in many places, but also a deep desire to pray, something that can so easily get smothered under the busyness of life. Many churches – including those that dioceses tell us they often struggle to engage with – have picked up the baton with vigour. Often they have been especially encouraged by the passion and direct appeal of the Archbishops.

In their letter of invitation, the Archbishops reminded us that "any movement of the Holy Spirit to draw increasing numbers to faith in Christ has always begun with prayer." As people across the country (and indeed many more beyond) prayed during Thy Kingdom Come, it's clear that not only will those we seek to reach be changed by God's transforming grace and redemption: so will those of us praying.

You can watch the Beacon event at Canterbury Cathedral on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/archbishopofcanterbury/videos/1011428212244658/ 

And to get a sense of the outpouring of prayer across England and beyond last week, just take a look at what happened on Twitter. https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ThyKingdomCome&src=tyah