The much-anticipated Pentecost Festival hit the streets of central London in full force under the gaze of dazzling sunshine. This massive party was a multi-cultural, inter-denominational and cross-generational celebration of the Church, open to all. The vision of Pentecost Festival is all about breaking society’s misconceptions of Christianity. It’s an initiative driven by a desire to break out the box and engage with society (reinforced by its’ slogan, “The Church Has Left the Building” and is definitively community-focused.
With a strong emphasis on showing the world that The Church is alive and kicking, this was certainly proved through a myriad of diverse, high-energy activity. Consisting of hundreds of events (most of them free!), they included live music, poetry performances, comedy, theatre productions, street dance, film screenings, photography exhibitions, basketball and even speed dating! It wasn’t just entertainment either, but also featured prayer walking around Parliament, debates (including ‘Science vs Faith), seminars and outreach, plus awareness-raising events: There was definitely something guaranteed for everyone!
 |
|
Children’s choir prayed for other children across the world at GDoP
|
The London Global Day of Prayer, now in its third year, was the finale to the weekend-long festivities, taking place on 11 May, Pentecost Sunday. A crowd of tens of thousands gathered in the blazing heat at South London’s Millwall FC to unite together in prayer, with the key theme being ‘Your Kingdom Come…On Earth as in Heaven’. The event began with a praise and worship session, the sound of which resounded throughout the stadium. This was contributed to by a whole host of artists including Noel Robinson, Muyiwa, Graham Kendrick and the All Soul’s Orchestra. Music also came courtesy of GreenJade who performed the powerful ‘Gunz Down’ track, accompanied by their awesome animated video projected on the huge screens.
 |
|
Graham Kendrick leading a worship session at the GDoP London
|
This was part of the programme aimed at engaging with youth. The theme of ‘The Power of Prayer versus Gun and Knife Crime’ was emphasized by Lee Isaac, the founder of Street Pastors, who made a speech about the vital work on the streets. This was then followed by a two minute silence in remembrance of all the young victims over the past 12 months. Richard Taylor, Damilola’s father who is also bereaved from the recent death of his wife, stood courageously and made a heartfelt plea, encouraging all affected by violent crime to forgive the perpetrators. Another poignant moment was when the children’s choir prayed for issues affecting their counterparts throughout the world, including poverty, slavery, HIV and AIDS, plus missing children such as Madeline McCann.
Key features of the afternoon also included a special video message from international leaders across the world such as Bishop T.D. Jakes. It was a landmark occasion for many reasons, and especially in light of the fact Boris Johnson, the newly elected Mayor of London, accepted the invitation to speak at the event and share his vision of how churches could work with him in stamping out gun and street crime. His surprise appearance, along with deputy mayor Ray Lewis, was welcomed by the crowd, as was his request for ongoing prayer support. Fellow MP Simon Hughes, one of the chief organizers of GDoP, also prayed for Mr Johnson, as well as all our national political leaders.
The Global Day of Prayer was a high profile occasion on many counts.
 |
|
(R to L) Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, MP Simon Hughes and deputy mayor, Ray Lewis
|
In recognition of the event’s increasing importance in the life of The Church and the capital, Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave huge backing by holding a reception at No10 Downing Street on May 7th ‘In Honour of the Global Day of Prayer’, when he commended the initiative and the “invaluable work of the churches in London”. It also created nationwide media interest and active support, covered by national newspapers, the BBC, ITV, Sky News and IRN.
Furthermore, the London event was linked to over 50 other centres in the UK who also took part, plus the worldwide GDoP which this year saw millions of Christians join in co-ordinated events across 211 countries. Ironically the Christians were in ‘The Den’ (Millwall stadium’s nickname) yet this date will go down in history for The Lion (of Judah) bringing us victory in transformation! Strategically occurring on Pentecost, it was a time of tapping into The Holy Spirit in order to go forward in power. Was this the biggest prayer meeting ever to take place globally? Definitely!
