Praying for Commonwealth nations

On 7 October, the Queen’s Baton Relay began its journey around the 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth, ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham. Altogether, the baton will cover 90,000 miles around Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean and the Americas on its 269-day journey, before its arrival in Birmingham in July 2022. Explore the route of the Baton Relay HERE.

In conjunction with the ‘Church Engagement and Legacy’ stream of the Commonwealth Games Churches’ Planning Group, Birmingham’s ‘World Prayer Centre’ is spearheading a Queen’s Baton Prayer Relay. Every few days, as the baton reaches a new Commonwealth nation or territory, WPC is releasing a post containing a few simple prayer requests for that nation. For example, as the Queen’s Baton reached Cameroon on Friday 29 October, the prayer requests are, ‘Pray that God would transform hearts to turn away from corruption and violence in light of frequent ethnic clashes; for media opportunities for TV and radio to reach less-reached people, the northern people and people living in the Mandara Mountains; for the youth to hear and respond to the gospel.’

The prayer requests are being released on each occasion via WPC’s Facebook page (Link HERE), Instagram account (Link HERE) and Twitter feed (Link HERE). These will be relayed in turn by Birmingham Churches Together on its Facebook page (Link HERE) and Twitter feed (Link HERE). It is hoped that other Christian groups will also relay the information, to enable a groundswell of prayer for Commonwealth nations and territories over the coming nine months.

Read more about the work of the World Prayer Centre HERE.