Continuing a tradition of Christians from all streams across Norwich and Norfolk gathering together at Norwich Cathedral on Pentecost Sunday, a service of praise and prayer took place in the nave with most of the chairs removed to allow for more freedom in worship.
St Thomas Norwich Vicar the Revd Ian Dyble welcomed around 450 Christians from dozens of local churches with worship led by Phil and Deborah Goldstone, Worship Pastors from Kingdom Life Church Norwich.
Immediately following the service around 150 participants re-gathered on Millennium Plain outside the Forum to kneel and pray for the city, the community and for the UK as part of the Thy Kingdom Come invitation from Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury to join with thousands of Christians across the country. The prayer was introduced by Craig Deal, the lead pastor at Gateway Vineyard Norwich.
Afterwards, Ian Dyble said: “We gathered together because we want to have a fresh experience of Pentecost, so we want to be empowered by God’s Holy Spirit to be witnesses to the Good News of the Gospel in our city.
“It is absolutely key that we do it together because it is by the love we have for one another that the world will know we are followers of Jesus. There is such a good sense of friendship and fellowship between churches and church leaders across the city at the moment that we have a fantastic window of opportunity to impact the city for the Gospel.”
Speaking about the prayer at the Forum, Ian said: “We just felt that as at Pentecost they gathered together and the Holy Spirit came and then they went out to Jerusalem, so we wanted to come out from the cathedral and bring the Good News out onto the streets of the city and that starts with prayer and now we will hopefully go on and be witnesses.”
This article comes courtesy of Network Norfolk.