A 'new look' ecumenism

A group of us from St John's Seven Kings joined about 20,000 other Christians at the Global Day of Prayer event in Upton Park on Pentecost Sunday. Highlights from the event can now be viewed by clicking here.

Leaving aside the cold weather on the day and the signalling problems on the District Line, I thought the GDOP was an excellent occasion. Well organised and genuinely inclusive of different traditions, I thought it was a moving occasion which was a real stimulus to prayer. I found the section relating to the slave trade particularly moving and appreciated the section involving prayers in many languages as a real reflection of what Pentecost means.

The Bishop of Barking, who chaired the Event Steering Group, was thrilled by the wide range of Christian traditions represented at the event. He said, “One of my main interests in chairing the steering committee for the London Global Day of Prayer was around encouraging a new expression of ecumenism… It was exciting and very productive to work with such a dynamic group of mixed ethnicity and denomination - the leaders of many of our black majority churches collaborated across the whole range of church life from Roman Catholic to Independent churches.”

He continued, “This broad-based collaboration worked well for the Global Day of Prayer - we all worked hard to ensure the West Ham event was representative of a wide variety of worship and prayer styles - and it may provide a model for achieving much more together in the future – not least a united and influential engagement with the 2012 Olympics and much else besides. “I see this as a hopeful ‘new look’ ecumenism, which seems to be reaching parts that our traditional ecumenical instruments have often failed to reach.”