Heather Bellamy spoke with Matt Bird, founder of the Cinnamon Network, about plans to roll out civic prayer events across the UK in autumn this year.

Matt Bird

Civic Prayer Events are a tried and tested approach for helping churches build stronger civic relationships and mobilise transformational prayer, and the Cinnamon Network are now inviting hundreds of churches in towns and cities across the UK to host one during the autumn of 2016. To find out more Heather Bellamy spoke with Matt Bird, founder of the Cinnamon Network.

Heather: How do you know that civic prayer events build stronger civic relationships and mobilise prayer?

Matt: We've talked to about 15 towns and villages around that UK that have already run a civic prayer event. They tell us that it's the thing they've done that's most transformed their relationship with civic leaders and civic organisations in the community.

Heather: Have they given you some examples of how it's strengthened them?

Matt: They have started to be involved on different voluntary panels, forums and boards, and are engaging as the church to work with others to build a stronger and better community. There are some great practical outcomes to getting involved in this way.

Heather: Which cities have previously held them?

Matt: London, Birmingham and Manchester, as well as lots of other smaller cities, but the big cities in England have already regularly hosted these kinds of events.

Heather: What has the feedback been from civic leaders in those cities?

Matt: It's been really positive. Sometimes we think, "Inviting people who aren't Christians to come and pray with us?" But actually I've never known a civic leader to decline the offer of prayer. When people are desperate and let's face it civic leaders and civic organisations are in a state of desperation, necessity is the mother of invention, so they're ready to try anything. I receive a great warmth to the invitation to come and pray with the Christian Church for the benefit of the community.

Heather: What does a civic prayer event look like?

Matt: It's not in a church building that's the first thing to say. Normally it's in a civic hall or some kind of civic space, because the whole idea is that the civic prayer isn't just accessible to people who are Christians, but to people who aren't and people who are on the fringes. We want people to come along from all different traditions.

Heather: Do people just sit in a circle and pray, is that all that happens?

Matt: No. What we're inviting people to do, if they're organising a civic prayer event, is to go into the community and meet a key leader from business, education, heath, media, politics, policing and other community organisations and ask them what is the greatest challenge they face. From that they should form seven community prayer goals, which become the focus of the civic prayer event.

People will be invited to lead a prayer from the front, or there might be people invited to lead a prayer at the table. We've had prayers written by doctors, teachers, nurses, policeman and politicians, and those prayers can be read in that setting. We're really trying to make it easy and accessible for those people to come and take part.

Lloyd Cooke (Christian leader), with Matthew Ellis, PCC at a Stoke-on-Trent Civic Prayer Breakfast

Heather: Does it always involve food, because I know here in Stoke-on-Trent we hold civic prayer breakfasts?

Matt: Yes, often they involve food. We hesitate to call them civic prayer breakfasts, because we don't want people to feel constrained. Sometimes these happen over lunch, or afternoon tea, or in the evening over drinks and canapés. It can happen in all sorts of varied contexts, but most often it happens over a nice cooked breakfast!

Heather: Is it generally only leaders, whether it's business, civic, or church leaders, or does the general public and general church population get invited too?

Matt: Anybody who has an interest in the community can get invited along. We're particularly keen for churches to invite younger emerging leaders to come and take part, so that they get a sense of the civic responsibility they have as Christians in the community.

Heather: Why are you looking to roll them out across the UK?

Matt: Because we're really keen for churches to build stronger relationships with civic leaders in the community and this has shown to be one of the most effective ways of doing that. We want them to be confident about building those relationships, but we also want them to be confident about putting Jesus centred prayer at the heart of community life too.

Heather: Who should put them on, is it individual churches, or does it need to be a network across the city?

Matt: We're really keen that churches in a location, whether it's a village, town or city, work together in partnership. There are many local church networks across the United Kingdom and they're the typical hosts for these kinds of events. So instead of the church being the Baptist church, Methodist church, or Anglican church etc, it can be the Church in Stoke-on-Trent, or the Church in Bristol, or the Church in Edinburgh or Belfast, acting together as one and representing Christ to their communities.

Heather: How many events would you hope to see being held this autumn?

Matt: We hope to see at least a hundred, perhaps even two hundred towns and cities host a civic prayer event of this nature.

Heather: Are you already thinking ahead to after the events, to how you might build on them happening?

Matt: Yes absolutely. You mentioned Stoke-on-Trent and Stoke-on-Trent have been running an event for a number of years, so it becomes an annual happening. Also because we've got these seven community prayer goals and there just happen to be seven days a week, we're calling the church to adopt rhythms of prayer for the transformation of society, by praying for a different sector each day of the week. So Monday to pray for people in business at the start of the working week, Friday to pray for politicians because they're in their constituency, Saturday to pray for the police, etc. Two things happen when we pray, one is we believe that God changes things and second we believe that God changes us. That's the kind of expectation we have around mobilising prayer in community life.

Heather: If someone is interested in hosting one, how can they go about it?

Matt: Simply go to our website www.cinnamonnetwork.co.uk. We're giving away a free booklet on how to run one these events. We've visited Stoke-on-Trent, London, Birmingham and Bristol and other places that have run one and we've taken the best practice that they use and we've put it into this little booklet. So if you're interested in running a civic prayer event in your village, town or city, go on to our website and get this free booklet and we'd be delighted to help you and support you in running your event.