World Day of Prayer, Lichfield Branch, Report for CTiL AGM, June 2023
The World Day of Prayer is an international, interdenominational women-led organisation which welcomes all to its annual services; the Lichfield Branch Committee draws from many of the churches in the city.
The World Day of Prayer circles the earth for at least 38 hours, beginning in Western Samoa and Tonga in the Pacific Ocean and ends at dusk in American Samoa. So, for us in the UK, prayer started at 6pm the night before and ends at breakfast time the day after. How amazing to be part of something so huge – and to be joining in prayer with people across the world and with so many people in the UK too. Services are held right across the UK throughout the day and we are all sharing in the same words.
The 2023 services were held on 3 March at St Chad’s Church, where we were warmly welcomed and supported. There was a reasonable attendance at the morning service and fewer at the evening service and we were pleased to welcome the Mayor and Mayoress, Jamie and Stephanie Checkland, the Sheriff and Consort, Janice and Keith Greaves, the Vice Chair of the District Council, Harry Warburton and the Archdeacon Missioner, the Venerable Sue Weller.
This year the service had been prepared by the Christian women of Taiwan with the theme ‘I have heard about your faith’ – Ephesians 1:15-19 and we were asked to use the postcard provided to send a message of encouragement to someone we knew. We were pleased to be joined by ‘Ladies who Lark’ who sang a song as part of the service.
The offering taken as part of the service of £392.90 with much of it gift-aided will help to support projects across the world, particularly those which focus on the needs of women and girls.
There were many appreciative comments about the service and the committee, made up of representatives from many of the churches across Lichfield, all contributed towards it.
We are very grateful for the grant from Churches Together in Lichfield, which enables us to cover many of our costs, particularly the purchase of materials; we are also grateful to individual committee members who donated items for the service and to the Cathedral for support with publicity for the service and accommodation for committee meetings.
The World Day of Prayer Committee are a friendly group and we would invite all churches to have a representative on it. The committee only meets about 4 times a year – a November planning meeting for the service in March, a rehearsal for the service in February, the services themselves and an AGM/feedback meeting shortly after the service. It is not a big commitment and we would welcome new people to join the committee.
Our AGM was held on 31 March 2023, at which officers were re-elected. Jane Hardy (from Wade Street was re-elected as Chair and Jill Sutton (from the Cathedral) was re-elected as Secretary/ Treasurer.
The 2024 service has been prepared by the people of Palestine on the theme of ‘I beg you, bear with one another in love’. We look forward to you joining us next March.
Jane Hardy,
Chair, June 2023