THE global prayer movement Thy Kingdom Come (TKC) is to focus this year on encouraging and refreshing Christians who are wearied by the pandemic and worshipping online.
The resources for this year’s prayer event, from 13 to 23 May, will be unveiled in a webinar on Tuesday, and will include a children’s video series, Cheeky Pandas, with Bible stories, prayers, animation, worship songs, and interviews with special guests, including the Chief Scout, Bear Grylls; the CBeebies presenter Gemma Hunt; the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Brompton, the Revd Nicky Gumbel; and Pastor Agu Irukwu and Pastor Shola Adeaga, from Jesus House, London.
The video series will be the main content in the family prayer adventure map and app, as last year.
There will also be reflections from the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, and the Coptic Archbishop of London, Archbishop Angaelos, and a prayer journal written by the Archbishop of York, the Most Revd Stephen Cottrell.
The Thy Kingdom Come app, available in nine languages, will have audio content from 24-7 Prayer Lectio 365, with reflections from the founder of the 24-7 prayer movement, Pete Greig (Features, 12 April 2019); the Archbishop of Canterbury; and the 24-7 Prayer GB UK director, Carla Harding.
Resources will be available to support churches whether they are able to meet online, or face to face, the Thy Kingdom Come team has promised. Also, 100,000 copies of the prayer journal and the family prayer adventure map will be given away free to UK churches, in recognition of the financial strain placed on churches by the pandemic.
The project director, Emma Buchan, said that this year’s resources recognised that some people had struggled with “church at home” during the past year. “Where it has been such a challenging year for everyone, we really want TKC to inspire people in their relationships with Christ, to gather those who have found online Church challenging, and to resource children and young people in fun, spiritually nourishing ways.
“We hope and pray Pentecost is a time of great joy after what has been such a challenging season.”
Since its creation by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in 2016, the global call to prayer from Ascension Day to Pentecost has been defined by mass gatherings, worship, picnics, and parties, and has attracted tens of thousands of people in 90 countries around the world. It was forced to move online entirely last year (News, 22 May 2020).
Register for the webinar here.