Thy Kingdom Come: Uniting in prayer 21st-31st May 2020

The prayer movement, taking place from 21st-31st May 2020, has the support of all the main leaders of key denominations in the UK, including the Methodist Church of Great Britain, Catholic Church of England and Wales, Pentecostal Churches, Free Churches, Orthodox Churches and the Church of Scotland. It was also commended by Her Majesty the Queen and His Holiness Pope Francis, head of the global Catholic church, last year.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Pete Greig (24-7 Prayer), Bishop Nicholas Hudson (Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster) and Teresa Carvalho (Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales) participated in the launch event at Lambeth Palace on 25th February 2020, aimed at encouraging international audiences to take part in the 11 day period of prayer from Ascension to Pentecost.

Christians from around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Netherlands, Thailand, Mauritius, South Sudan, America and Canada tuned into watch the launch as it was livestreamed on Facebook. 

The power of prayer

In his main address, Archbishop Justin Welby spoke about the potential life-changing power of prayer during Thy Kingdom Come:

“What excites me is that as we come together and pray for people to be filled with the Spirit, so they come to know and love Jesus Christ, to repent of their sins and turn away from all that is wrong and to find the love of Christ filling their hearts, we are in fact praying for the changing of our world.”

Pete Greig, founder of 24-7 Prayer, also shared during the event, reflecting on the wider context of prayer and the various global movements happening, as well as drawing on his experience of leading global phenomenon 24-7 Prayer over the last 20 years. He said of Thy Kingdom Come:

“How wonderful this prospect of coming together from May 21-31st to pray as one – Come Holy Spirit and Let Your Kingdom Come. I would say to my fellow pastors, vicars and priests – in the busyness of all that we do, let this be the priority. Let us get behind this and let us have grace for one another in this, because I believe Jesus is calling us to pray. This has the marks of the Holy Spirit upon it.”

Prayer resources coming soon

The launch event also previewed new resources for 2020, including an exciting print/digital resource which will be distributed to almost half a million Key Stage 2 aged school children in Church of England and Methodist Schools across England and Wales. 

Building on from last year’s Family Prayer Adventure Map, this year’s digital version uses gaming and augmented reality technology to bring the 11-day themes to life.  For example, each day there will be either a game, Bible story or video reflection from contributors including Archbishop Justin Welby, CBBC’s Gemma Hunt, Guvna B, Jonathan Bryan (Eye Can Talk), New York Times bestselling author of The Jesus Story Book Bible, Sally Lloyd Jones, and storyteller Philip Glassborow.

The digital map comes to life through an app, which can be downloaded through any smartphone and was created in collaboration with Leeds-based charity Missional Generation.

Enduring favourite resources, such as the traditional Novena and the Prayer Journal were also previewed, which this year included the famous ‘Prodigal Son’ artwork from world-renowned artist Charlie Mackesy on the front cover.

All resources will be made available to order at thykingdomcome.global/resources from the beginning of March.

Find out more

Now going into its fifth year, Thy Kingdom Come has gathered more than a million Christians, in nearly 90% of countries worldwide, to pray for more people to come to faith in Christ during the period of Ascension to Pentecost – a traditionally historic time of year the church prayed for evangelisation.