January 1 launched 75 weeks of focused prayer for The United Methodist Church starting in North Carolina.
Nashville, Tenn.: The second phase of the ‘Praying Our Way Forward‘ initiative will be launched New Year’s Day with 75 weeks of focused prayer for The United Methodist Church. The effort will begin January 1 in the North Carolina Conference and wrap up in the West Angola Episcopal Area in June 2018.
Each annual conference of will take one week to have intentional prayer for the mission of The United Methodist Church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world and for the work of the Commission on a Way Forward, which will begin meeting this month. The week assigned to The Michigan Area is August 6-12, 2017.
The aim of ‘Praying Our Way Forward’ is to ask and listen for God’s leadership at this critical time in the life of our church,” said Bishop Al Gwinn, who co-chairs the initiative. Co-chair Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett adds, “In addition to participating in a designated week of prayer, individuals are invited to join the initiative by praying daily and fasting weekly for our church, mission and future.”
“Praying Our Way Forward” was created by the Council of Bishops. To achieve this mission, they invited The Upper Room to help engage every annual conference around the world. United Methodist Women, United Methodist Men and United Methodist Communications have recently joined the partnership.
United Methodist Women and United Methodist Men will encourage their constituencies to pray throughout phase two, and especially during their annual conference sponsored week.
The Upper Room has developed UMCprays.org, a website where spiritual leaders and intercessors can share prayers, information and resources. The site has prayer resources for individuals, families, small groups, districts, and annual conference events, as well as promotional ideas and information about the Commission members and the weekly prayer schedule.
This year, 5,000 people joined the website, formerly 60daysofprayer.org, to connect intercessors around the world to pray for the work of the 2016 General Conference. The group has continued to pray together and remains a valuable spiritual support network of The United Methodist Church.
During phase 1 of the new initiative, 84 bishops of the church spent 15 minutes each day for four months in prayer for the selection and initial work of the Commission on A Way Forward.
For more information, visit UMCprays.org.
Last Updated on December 28, 2022