We're praying for you, Sheffield

Sheffield is informally known as "the largest village in England," a city made up of very distinct local areas. If we’re honest, there’s often not a lot of connection between these diverse places which range from the post-industrial Don Valley to the leafy south-west suburbs.

As Easter approaches, something unusual is underway which is unifying our city in a new way. Prayer.

The Arise Sheffield initiative is inspiring thousands of followers of Jesus from across 100+ churches to walk along, and pray for, every single street in our city. It is over 20 miles between Stocksbridge and Crystal Peaks, yet Christians share something in common, they love and seek to bless the neighbourhoods they live in. Sheffield is being joined together in prayer.

Last weekend over 200 followers of Jesus from every church style and tradition came together at Sheffield Cathedral to launch this month-long prayer vigil. Their stated aim is to ‘cover’ our city in prayer, ‘discover’ the prayer needs of the people around us and ‘recover’ the true meaning of Easter for Sheffield.

60 big banners have been erected all over Sheffield, amongst the rich and poor, by the multicultural terraced streets and the commercial heartlands. They boldly declare “Our Church is praying for you this easter” with a QR code to send in prayer requests. If you pass one, feel free to join in.

Arise Sheffield is supported by a phone app where participants record every street that has been prayed for, perhaps during a person’s daily walk. During March the streets will light up and glow brighter the more times they are prayed for.

The app launched on Wednesday. 24 hours later, it had over 30 prayer requests from places as far apart as Arbourthrone, Loxley, Dore and Halfway.

Some are personal needs, like worry/anxiety, and the need for physical healing. Others are asking us to pray for our city’s needs: homelessness in Western Park, local businesses during the recession, the survival of Heely City Farm, the foodbank in Woodhouse, the cuffuffle about the clean air zone.

In these tumultuous times, there is always an open invitation to seek God. In the Bible, St. Peter put it well: “Throw all your anxiety onto him, because he cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

Prayer unites people. Sheffield isn’t as far apart as we might imagine.