Last night a group of UTX went to Winchester Cathedral for an amazing prayer concert.

(most of the chairs had been cleared away so more people could get inside…the floor was pretty hard and cold but we didn’t mind! We were all given a moving book about the Queen which will be arriving in the homes of the Itchen Valley very soon.)

This was part of a national series of events to bring the nine days of prayer to an end. The Cathedral was packed and there were lots of people watching on large screens on the Green outside.

Matt Redman (creator of modern Christian songs such as ‘Blessed be your name’) led us in some lively singing as we praised God and there was a live link up with Canterbury Cathedral for a message from the Archbishop of Canterbury who spoke about the joy of prayer and praying for our friends to come home to Jesus. There were then some baptisms and confirmations which Bishop David conducted in a large pool which enabled people to be fully immersed rather than sprinkled with water.

This was an amazing experience for us and a fitting culmination of the Thy Kingdom Come prayer initiative. Do ask our young people about it if you would like to find out more.

So we pray, ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’…Amen.

Thanks as ever to Alex who took the photographs because as usual I had forgotten my camera!

You can watch the Beacon event at Canterbury Cathedral on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09N24NwNTfE
The Archbishop’s talk begins at 41 minutes.