New Year Prayer Call from English Church Leaders
Church leaders are calling Christians to pray for the nation. The prayer call for the start of the year, follows the release of the Talking Jesus research into People’s Perceptions of Jesus, Christians and Evangelism.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Revd Dr Hugh Osgood, Bishop Eric Brown and Billy Kennedy, all of whom are Presidents of Churches Together in England commend ‘Talking Jesus’ research:
‘At Christmas Christians celebrate God’s great gift of love in Jesus Christ. It is a gift that the Christian church wants to share with everyone. At the beginning of a New Year, we ask you to pray that the love of Jesus will transform the communities in which we live and witness, and that our churches will faithfully fulfil their commission to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 25:19).
‘We commend to you the research undertaken about ‘Talking Jesus’ (www.talkingjesus.org) as you begin a New Year of love and service.’
Churches are being invited join together to take part in a focused time of prayer between 31 December 2015 and 3 January 2016. A Talking Jesus New Year Prayer video is available, featuring Christians of many different ages, genders and ethnicities uniting to pray for our nation. Churches can also use a specially–written New Year Prayer leaflet and New Year Prayer PowerPoint. Also the text of the Talking Jesus New Year prayer can be downloaded as a PDF.
Evangelical Alliance partnered with the Church of England and HOPE with Barna Group and ComRes to publish the biggest research of its kind on perceptions of Jesus, Christians and evangelism in England. There will certainly be insights for us here in Northern Ireland.