Who's in the House...?!

Among the snap-happy tourists, school trips, frantic-looking "suits", encamped protestors & the unsurprising post-Election-results media circus, something strange is stirring... Huddled beneath the Wilberforce monument in Victoria Gardens, a determined group of people are trying to usher in change. They might not look like your average revolutionaries - several are suited with smart shoes; others might look more at home in the queue for guided tours & one even has a push chair and toddling child in tow - but these are revolutionaries nonetheless. I consider myself honoured to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these people as Big Ben "sounds off" for 10:30...

For the past 5 years, the good people at 24-7 Prayer have been helping members of Parliament, civil servants & ordinary Christians come together in unity to pray for the governing powers in our nation. This week sees the 2009 Parliament Prayer Week take place and this is the first of an entire week of prayer-walking around the estate of Westminster. I'm privileged to have been involved from the beginning through something of a chance encounter and a wonderful night in Luton (read the story HERE) and have stood on this spot before, to lift our Parliament before God. This morning there seem to be more "suits" than previous years - that first year was a curious mix of the bright-eyed young idealists and those aging prayer warriors that every church has among its number. This year, though, it seems like the *most* timely of all the prayer weeks - Westminster is in chaos, election results are in and the shockwaves are heading round, "expenses" is the new swear word doing the rounds and there are even some BNP politicians elected to Europe. It's time to get on our knees and intercede on behalf of our leaders.

After praying together in the shadow of the Wilberforce monument (by the way, this is no coincidence, as we pray for more "Wilberforces" to rise up and make a difference...), this small crowd heads off for a tour around the edge of the Westminster estate marked by the river. We pray for the media and their reporting on the political system & climate - in sight of one of the many temporary interview sites, hurriedly being set up for the latest raft of interviews in reaction to last night's election results. We stop again to pray together "between the church and the state" - outside Lambeth Palace and then on down the opposite bank to look across to the Palace of Westminster - with its central lobby literally 'built' on Psalm 127. We finish our prayer tour on Westminster Bridge next to the Speaker's Apartments, to intercede for both the outgoing and the soon-to-be incoming Speaker of the House. To the casual observer, we look like a strange tourist group, shielding our eyes from the midday sunshine. But we know different. We're standing on behalf of our government, our political leaders and our nation. What a privilege for this eclectic bunch of believers!

I have had some unique experiences during these prayer weeks. I've met fascinating people and had some pretty detailed tours of the various buildings in Westminster including the Houses of Parliament themselves. It is often bewildering to me that I have so little knowledge about politics and yet have found myself championing the cause of (young) Christians engaging in the political arena. But it is this, that inspires me most about this prayer week - that any one of us "normal praying Christians" from the local church, can link arms with the very ministers & civil servants who run our country, to pray for & on behalf of our nation...

And you don't even have to come to London to make a difference either! We're holding a prayer evening this Friday in Luton to join with the prayer week and the Christians in Parliament website contains loads of resources to help you pray for your local MP and for all the governing and opposition parties too. Why not get involved?!