Today we come to the end of our forty daily prayers for the projects of the Church Urban Fund and the Contextual Theology Centre.  In Eastertide, we will be continuing this prayer blog on a weekly basis (beginning on the Sunday after Easter).  We are also continuing our blog of reflections on the Gospel readings for Sundays and Major Feasts.

These prayer blogs grew out of a widespread and growing sense that something is wrong with our common life – that our political, social and economic order needs renewal; that its deficiencies speak of a spiritual as well as a structural malaise, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ provides both a ‘Call to Change’ and the power and grace to make things different.

Today, we ask you to pray not only for our organisations and their projects, but for a new openness to the renewing work of the Holy Spirit – both in our local communities and in our national life.

Pray for churches in London as they work to support people likely to be displaced by the new housing benefit cap.  The Contextual Theology Centre and Housing Justice are both involved in helping churches to reflect and act on this urgent issue.

Pray also for central Birmingham churches who have been piloting a winter night shelter – in a strongly ecumenical project which is bringing churches in the area together. Supported by the Church Urban Fund, it is using the Housing Justice ‘roving shelter’ model where 5 churches will offer their space for 5 different nights of the week, with volunteers from the churches helping.

Pray for churches across the country as they grapple with these issues – praying, offering practical care, and challenging structural injustice.

Pray for the Parish of the Risen Lord, Preston as it discerns how best to use an old mission building to proclaim and embody the Gospel today.  St Matthew’s Mission is Victorian building from which various community groups currently operate (e.g. Street Pastors).  With support from the Church Urban Fund, it is carrying out a feasibility study to see how it can best renovate the building for new projects addressing the needs of young people, at a time of very high unemployment.  This phase of exploration and discernment will involve a practical pilot project involving a work club and a youth cafe.

In the 1920s and 1930s, St Mary’s Somers Town (now in the Parish of Old St Pancras) was home of Fr Basil Jellicoe’s ‘Magdalen College Mission’, which transformed the slums of the parish into affordable and decent housing.  Here as in Preston, Christians are discerning how a historic vision of mission applies to todays challenges.  The Contextual Theology Centre has founded the Jellicoe Community which seeks to embody Fr Jellicoe’s vision in a new generation of Christians, helping churches across north-east London engage in community organising.  Dominic Keech’s blogpost explains the work he did as a Jellicoe Intern in Somers Town last summer.  Pray for the Parish of Old St Pancras, and other churches which host Jellicoe Interns.

Pray for St John’s, Bierley in Bradford Diocese which is working with existing youth bus provision to support at-risk young females in Bierley. They plan to employ a sessional worker to become part of the mobile bus outreach, hoping to reach vulnerable young girls who are at risk through ‘hanging out on the streets’. The sessions will begin by taking place once a week, but there are hopes to increase this to twice a week. e:merge, an experienced youth work charity, will be steering the project – with support from the Church Urban Fund

Pray also for Andy Walton, one of the staff of the Contextual Theology Centre, as he begins to co-ordinate the CitySafe initiative at St Peter’s, Bethnal Green.  With support from Centre interns, the church has been reaching out to other local organisations and residents to identify ways to make the streets safer, by reweaving the fabric of relationships, trust and mutual support within the parish – and particularly by involving young people in the process.

Pray for St Philip’s Church, Bradford – ministering in an area with a great diversity of faiths.  The Church Urban Fund is supporting St Philip’s as it starts English classes for men who speak other languages, with the aim to build relationships between the church and local men of other faiths and ethnicities.  A pilot scheme has shown there is demand. The church aims to offer a 2 hour class each week, supported by church volunteers, and led by an ESOL qualified tutor. It will work with pre-ESOL learners who cannot access existing education provision, so that they can take first steps towards learning English.

Pray also for the work being done by London Citizens among the Chinese diaspora community: engaging churches and cultural associations in common action with other groups in civil society.  Pray also for the way this work has helped to inspire community organising in Hong Kong – and for the support the Contextual Theology Centre is giving to this process, with plans to launch ‘HK Citizens’ and engage a wide range of churches in this work.

Before Christmas, the Contextual Theology Centre produced a resource pack on Christian Responses to the Financial Crisis – endorsed by St Paul’s Cathedral and the Occupy camp on its doorstep.  The Centre is continuing to work with the Cathedral and people involved in the camp – to explore how the Christian vision of justice and stewardship can transform our economic order.  Pray for this work, and especially today for the sharing of ideas with Christians from cross the Atlantic, as Centre staff meet leaders from Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation.

Pray also for @the Bus Stop, a project in  East Bradford that will address the emotional and social needs of young people in six areas which rank within the 2% with the most economic deprivation in the UK.  The Church Urban Fund is supporting the project offering advice and support in an area with limited or non-existent provision for young people from any other agencies.  Pray for Wellsprings Bradford, the local Christian charity undertaking this and other vital pieces of work.

Please pray for Op Shops – a network of 7 church charity shops in the Carlisle area. These social enterprises aim to serve local people by selling good quality second hand goods, and offering pastoral support and evangelistic ministry. They provide safe places where the community can meet, volunteer, and in the future community programmes for specific needs.

The story of how Op Shops started is inspiring and instructive: it shows the imaginative ways in which churches can move beyond their own internal concerns (in this case fundraising for building work) to engage the wider community in loving and practical service – building relationships and sharing faith.

The Church Urban Fund is supporting the expansion of Op Shops, and is working with the Contextual Theology Centre on the wider issue of how practical service, the challenging of social injustice and the sharing of faith are each given there proper place in the life of the church.  Please pray for this work – and give thanks for the many ways in which practical and imaginative social action is helping to renew local churches.