United Kingdom - Millions of Christians spanning 176 nations will stop and pray for the needs of the world on Pentecost Sunday as part of one of the largest global prayer events to ever take place.
The Global Day of Prayer on 27 May will be the culmination of thousands of 24-hour-a-day prayer watches taking place around the world in the 10 days running up to the event.
Prayer events are expected to take place across 30 locations in the UK alone as part of GDOP, including a major open-air prayer rally in Edinburgh to cap a mammoth 50-day prayer march across the whole of Scotland organised by Pray for Scotland.
The vision for the Global Day of Prayer started in Africa when in July 2000 God captured the heart of a South African Christian businessman, Graham Power, with a vision to transform Christians and the world through prayer.
In March 2001, more than 45,000 Christians united for a Day of Repentance and Prayer at Newlands Rugby Stadium in Cape Town.
Testimonies of transformation spread the vision to the rest of South Africa and planning immediately started for similar prayer gatherings in eight South African provinces in 2002.
Across the African continent millions of Christians were inspired to participate in the process of transforming Africa. 77 South African regions and 27 African countries (66 cities) committed to a Day of Repentance and Prayer for Africa on the 1 May 2003.
On 2 May 2004, history was made when Christians from all 56 nations of Africa participated in the first ever continental Day of Repentance and Prayer for Africa.
Then at a meeting of the International Prayer Council in Malaysia in November 2004, the invitation from Africa went out to the nations of the world to join in a five year Global Day of Prayer process up to 2010.
On Pentecost Sunday in 2005, Christians from 156 nations of the world united across denominational and cultural borders for the first Global Day of Prayer.
This movement of prayer expanded again in 2006, when on Pentecost Sunday (4 June 2006) 250 million Christians from around the world took part in the Global Day of Prayer.
2007 is set to expand this prayer movement even further. Traditional centres of worship taking place in GDOP across the UK include York Minster, Beverley Minster and Norwich Cathedral which are all to open their doors as “houses of prayer for all nations”.
Football stadiums in Gillingham, Sunderland, and Redditch, meanwhile, will host afternoon prayer events with London’s Upton Park stadium, home to West Ham United FC, promising to be the largest gathering with an estimated 24,000 people.
Northern Ireland will hold 16 prayer and worship events.
Interdenominational prayer events will place in a number of places including St Leonards, Luton, Southampton, Ipswich, Northampton and Monmouth in Wales. Many churches will dedicate part of their services to join in the Prayer for the World.
Jane Holloway UK Co-ordinator Global Day of Prayer said, “It is encouraging to see how this call to repentance and prayer is being taken up by Christians of every denomination across the UK and around the world.”
