We have already blogged about Urgent Patience – an essay on Christian spirituality and social action, which has been issued as part of the Call to Change by the Contextual Theology Centre and Church Urban Fund. 

The introduction to Urgent Patience is worth quoting:

We love because God first loved us (1 John 4.19). Every Communion service, whatever its name, reminds us of this central fact of Christian life. We can only feed because we have been fed; we are sent out in the power of the Spirit because have first been called together as Christ’s Body. Christian action flows from gratitude rather than from obligation or from guilt. ‘Deep calls unto deep’ (Ps 42.7). The love poured out for us in Christ calls forth a grace-filled echo in our hearts.

Pray especially for this afternoon’s event on Receiving and Becoming the Body of Christ which the Contextual Theology Centre is holding in Bethnal Green.  Pray that this time of adoration and reflection intercession may build up all who participate – and be a blessing to them in their work for God’s Kingdom.

Pray for those involved in the Church Urban Fund, the Contextual Theology Centre and their many partner churches and projects – that this work would be grounded in gratitude and nourished by prayer and worship.

In our prayers this week, we focus on Near Neighbours – a programme co-ordinated by the Church Urban Fund and the Church of England to build relationships across faiths and cultures.

Last November, the Hindu Christian Forum was launched by Archbishop Rowan Williams and Sri Shruti Dharma Das Ji.  It is one of the partners in Near Neighbours, and is holding a series of workshops and events to help Christians and Hindus work together at local level.  One such event was held in east London last month, and very well received.

Pray for this ongoing work across the Near Neighbours localities – and in particular for the work being done by the Contextual Theology Centre to deepen relationships between one of our largest Roman Catholic churches (SS Stephen & Nicholas, Manor Park – whose parish priest, Fr Sean Connolly, is our Assistant Director) and the local Hindu community.

In our prayers this week, we focus on Near Neighbours – a programme co-ordinated by the Church Urban Fund and the Church of England to build relationships across faiths and cultures

Through social programmes rooted in their values, faith groups make an enormous contribution to our society. Many thousands of men and women of faith regularly volunteer for projects that benefit those in need or improve our environment.

Please pray for A Year of Service – an initiative that will help highlight and link up these projects during 2012. Every month, each of the nine major faith communities in turn will host a day of volunteering in communities and businesses across the country and will invite people of other faiths, and those without religious beliefs, to join in. Each community’s day of service will be linked to one of its religious festivals, or to an existing volunteering day such as the Hindu-led ‘Sewa Day’ or the Jewish-led ‘Mitzvah Day’. Each day will have a theme, such as visiting the elderly, feeding the hungry or planting trees.

Pray for the Near Neighbours programme – in eastern London and across England – for the ways in which it is supporting this initiative, and for the generosity and trust which will be built through the process.

In our prayers this week, we focus on Near Neighbours – a programme co-ordinated by the Church Urban Fund and the Church of England to build relationships across faiths and cultures.

Another partner in the Near Neighbours programme is the Council for Christians and Jews – the UK’s oldest national interfaith organisation for Christian-Jewish dialogue.  Pray for the work the Council is doing in the four Near Neighbours areas across England – and in particular for an event in east London today at which a local Rabbi and Vicar will lead a discussion of Jewish and Christian Understandings of Passover.

In our prayers this week, we focus on Near Neighbours – a programme co-ordinated by the Church Urban Fund and the Church of England to build relationships across faiths and cultures



The Near Neighbours Grants Fund is a central part of the programme.  It helps very local initiatives that build cross-community relationships – where people of different faith groups and those of no faith work together  to form closer relationships.  Grants of £250 to £5,000 are available and these are administered through the Church Urban Fund via local parishes.

Pray for those staff who have to make decisions about which projects to fund – and for the wide range of grassroots initiatives being supported.  You can see some specific examples on the Contextual Theology Centre’s Near Neighbours blog.

In our prayers this week, we focus on Near Neighbours – a programme co-ordinated by the Church Urban Fund and the Church of England to build relationships across faiths and cultures

The Near Neighbours programme includes around a dozen interns being trained and supported by the Nehemiah Foundation.  Drawn from the local community, their role is to help residents engage more effectively in neighbourhood regeneration and renewal – so that they have a more powerful voice in shaping their area’s future.

Pray for the interns – for the Nehemiah Foundation staff who support and train them, and for the way their work enriches the Near Neighbours programmes in its four areas of focus.  These areas are eastern London (where the programme co-ordinated by the Contextual Theology Centre), Leicester, Birmingham and Bradford, Burnley & Oldham.

Please pray for Come to the Edge – an event being run by the Christian-Muslim Forum for women committed to building community as part of the Near Neighbours programme (in which the Church Urban Fund and Contextual Theology Centre are both key partners).  Pray for those who will be there today and tomorrow from eastern London, Leicester, Birmingham and the north of England.

Pray also for West Cumbria Community Money Advice.  The Church Urban Fund is helping this local charity to expand its work, providing more budgeting and money management courses for the local community and training new volunteers to offer advice and support.

This week, many of our prayer requests will involve Near Neighbours – a programme run by the Church Urban Fund and the Church of England, with funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government to sustain and deepen relationships across faiths.

Near Neighbours works in four localities – parts of Birmingham; Leicester; Bradford, Burnley & Oldham, and eastern London.  The Contextual Theology Centre (CTC) is administering the eastern London programme.

Pray for Liz Carnelley who directs the national programme, and Tim Clapton, who co-ordinates Near Neighbours (Eastern London) for CTC.  You can find out more about the work on the national and local Near Neighbours blogs.

Please pray for Women on the Frontline Ministries (WOFM), which