Request for Prayer from Partners in Great Britain

Ana and Tod Gobledale, GM Overseas Associates working with the United Reformed Church in Great Britian send the following update and prayer requests from London:

Finally, brothers and sisters,…
Put things in order, listen to my appeal,
agree with one another, live in peace;
and the God of love and peace will be with you.

2 Corinthians 13.11 

Many shop fronts on Brockley Road near St. Andrew’s United Reformed Church, our church, are tightly closed, their metal fronts lowered.  People scurry home from Brockley station, into the safety of their locked homes.  Few singers came out last night for choir practice; many were held back by street blockades.  Bible Study and Weight Watchers were cancelled this evening.  The church sits empty. 

What commenced as a peaceful demonstration against the killing of Mark Duggan by police, caught fire and has spread like wild fire.  We watch images of violence, looting and vandalism on our TV and computer screens – from Lewisham to Bristol to  Birmingham.  We share with others, wondering what has happened, how to respond. 

One place to start our response is with prayer.  So we invite you to join us in prayer for our community—Brockley & Lewisham, our city—London, and our country—Great Britain.  May our churches and all faith communities across the city be beacons of light in the darkness, and speak words of faith and hope.

Ana & Tod

We share this prayer, slightly altered, from Revd Pat Took, President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain: 

Pray for the peace of the city, may peace be within your homes and security on your streets.

• Pray for the family and friends of Mark Duggan as they absorb the shock of his violent and premature death – pray that the circumstances of his death may become clear for everyone to see and that those who loved him will have confidence that justice has been done.
• Pray for everyone who has been traumatised by the events of the weekend – the police officers who have been injured, and their families – those who have lost homes and businesses – those who have lost their sense of living in a friendly and safe place.
• Pray for our police, that there will be among them exceptional men and women, able to understand the hopes and fears of all the different individuals and groups they deal with, able to uphold the law with wisdom, integrity and discretion, able to step over prejudice, their own and other people’s.
• Pray for entrepreneurs and business people with drive and energy to create sustainable, worthwhile jobs for folk living across our country.
• Pray for mothers and fathers to stand steady and faithful at the heart of their families, and offer the disciplines of love, truth and example. May they model how to seek justice without violence.
• Pray for the young, that they will listen to the voices calling them to live courageously and freely, and will turn away from those influences calling them to alienation and victimhood.
• Pray for the future when resources may be scarce, jobs and homes hard to come by. May we be those who demonstrate a genuine concern for our neighbours, the salt that resists the tendency to care only for ourselves, the light that reveals all the many dimensions of well being that do not depend on affluence.

 “peace be within you”. Amen

Source and original version: Baptist Union of Great Britain.