Prayer week 2025

This year's prayer week runs from Palm Sunday 13 April to Easter Day 20 April, and traces Jesus' final week in the run up to His crucifixion and resurrection from Luke's Gospel.

We want to offer the whole church the opportunity to come together to pray each day. You can pray at home, or join others in the church lounge when you can. There are five ways to take part:

Daily online videos
Every day there is a new YouTube video recorded by a different person in the church, who will read a brief passage from Luke and then give a short "thought for the day".

“Daily bread” sessions
These are shorter half-hour pauses, normally in the middle of the day, for prayer and reflection which Russell will lead.

Prayer gatherings
Our discipleship groups (DGs) will be leading us in prayer on a particular theme and in their own way. These will last for about an hour and will normally be in the evening.

Worship services
Our Palm Sunday worship, Good Friday Lord's Supper, and Easter Day celebration will fit into the pattern of the week.

Daily readings
You can read the story of the cross along with us from Luke's Gospel, with a suggested passage for each day. Click here to read our guide on 'Help to pray at home'.

Timetable



Fasting
For generations Christians have devoted themselves to prayer and fasting in the run-up to Easter. If you'd like to, you could try fasting during this week as well.

Fasting is restricting what we eat in order to humble ourselves before God – in mourning or repentance, to seek His deliverance or mercy, and for preparation or empowering. It shows we believe our hunger for God’s power and presence is more vital than food. We replace food with prayer.

There is no obligation to fast, and no wrong way to do it. God looks at our hearts, not at how severely we fast. We are not asking anyone to go without food for a week! But it is not easy - that is why it is described as a "spiritual discipline." However, you might like to try one or more of these approaches:

• Sweet/caffeine fast – no chocolate, sweets, cake or biscuits, fizzy drinks, tea & coffee,
• Daytime fast - eat breakfast and an evening meal, but nothing in between (you could still take drinks as normal),
• 24 hour fast - miss all three (if that’s normal for you!) meals.

Alternatively, you may want to try breaking some other habit, like constantly swiping through social media, or pouring yourself a glass of wine when you get in from work!

As long as you are in a generally good state of health, you should be able to do some fasting. Otherwise, anything beyond the sweet/caffeine fast could be dangerous. So do not fast if (for example) you suffer from diabetes or anaemia, have long-term illness, are low in bodyweight, or are pregnant/nursing. Also, if you do very active or physical work, operate machinery, or play sport, you’ll need to think about when/how to fast safely so that you do not put yourself or others at risk.