The King's Call

October 2022

Dear Friends

A queue snakes across the wide pavement as people wait patiently to enter Westminster Abbey, but they have not come for a royal funeral.  The old grainy photograph shows large numbers on Sunday 26 May 1940 answering the call of King George VI for a National Day of Prayer.  People filled churches across the nation because hundreds of thousands of retreating British troops trapped on the French coast at Dunkirk desperately needed to be evacuated before the advancing German forces overwhelmed them.  Winston Churchill would later call the rescue of 338,000 soldiers ‘the miracle of Dunkirk’ and a Day of National Thanksgiving was called on Sunday 9 June.

There were several such days of prayer in our country during both world wars (and in times of trouble before then) called by kings and prime ministers who believed that we must repent of behaviour that falls short of God’s good commands, that God had the power to deliver our nation, and that we had much to thank God for.  The calls were heeded by a nation that believed the same things.  And we have recently been very forcefully reminded that Queen Elizabeth shared the same convictions and lived by them right through into the Twenty-First Century.

I can’t call the nation to pray but I can appeal to you to consider the huge challenges we face: in our national debt, health service, schools and politics; with war in Ukraine, rising fuel and food prices and uncertain energy supply; overwhelmed by family breakdowns and our mental health crisis; having lost so much of our moral compass and our hope for the future.  Do you think we have the answer to any of these problems?

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“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”   (The Bible: 2 Chronicles 7:14)

Please come on one of these dates to pray for our nation for 30 minutes:

Holy Trinity Church Holme on Sunday 16^th October at 4.00pm
St James Church Burton on Sunday 23^rd October at 4.00pm

I will not be asking you to pray out loud or to sing.  I will lead in some prayers, and there will be time for silent thoughts and prayer.  That’s all.  Do come.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows