Our Vision for the Transforming Prayer Community
Prayer is both simple and profound. It changes us and the world. It moves us to action and stirs us out of our complacency.
When we pray repeatedly, publicly and privately, there is a slow conversion of the heart to the priorities of God. Grace seeps into the fractures and failings of our humanity, as well as into the hopes and longings of the soul.
Our Transforming Prayer Community is our diocese-wide community that seeks to connect and reconnect us with this simple vocation to pray.
Our prayer community is an invitation to simplicity, to growth and change, and to an adventure in which we will discover more about God’s priorities and equip us to be his Body in a world of need.
Monthly prayer diary
The Prayer Diary for our diocese is published every month and available to download using the links below.
We invite you to become a part of our Prayer Community
All that we ask you to do is make a daily commitment to say:
1. The Lord’s Prayer
2. Our Diocesan Prayer of Thanksgiving and Hope
3. The Prayer for your local area or the Prayer for Peace
Sign up
Become a Prayer Community member:
You can also find us over on our Transforming Prayer Community Facebook group.
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Our Vision for the Transforming Prayer Community
Lord, teach us to pray.
Prayer, at its heart, is simple: it is all about God and being where we can meet him and be transformed by him. It is not about having fancy words or being clever, or about being holier than others. It is about being where God can show us the endlessness of that grace and love which invites us to respond with hope and joy. Human beings are made in and for God. Prayer, as our response to him, is as natural as breathing. As God breathes life into his creation, he invites us to use our breath freely in praise and thanksgiving and ask for his Kingdom of justice and mercy to come.
Our Transforming Prayer Community is all about connecting and reconnecting with this simple vocation to pray. In the face of a messy, complex world which pulls us in all sorts of directions, our diocesan prayer community which will help each of us and our churches be better aligned with God’s call on our lives. This call invites us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and be thankful. Prayer takes us to the solid ground of our hope on which the Kingdom is built: Jesus Christ. The first disciples cried out to Jesus ‘Lord teach us to pray.’ That is our longing too. Jesus, in his love, provides us with the family prayer on which we can rely: The Lord’s Prayer. The anchor for our Transforming Prayer Community is a commitment, then, to pray the Lord’s Prayer each day.
We, the people of Manchester Diocese, seek to serve over two million people in Greater Manchester and Rossendale. The Transforming Prayer Community is also an invitation, then, to commit to pray for the communities of which we are part. Our diocesan Prayer of Thanksgiving and Hope articulates our longings for God’s transformation in the local church, the Diocese, and for our communities: our thankfulness and need for refreshment, as well as our desire for all to know Jesus’s transforming love and for his Kingdom of justice, mercy and peace to come. Those who wish to be part of our Transforming Prayer Community are asked simply to make time to pray the diocesan prayer along with the Lord’s Prayer each day.*
* A child-friendly version of the Diocesan Prayer will also be available. Over time a suite of further prayers, for times and seasons, will be made available, each anchored by the Lord’s Prayer.
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Bishop Matthew Porter will be leading a short time of focussed prayer for various situations of conflict each Wednesday at 12 noon for twenty-five minutes on Facebook Live via his page.
All are invited to join him to pray for peace.
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Three prayers to say each day
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You can download these prayers here:
Our Diocesan Prayer of Thanksgiving and Hope
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Prayer walks
The purpose of a prayer walk is to express our love for our communities by lifting them before God in prayer. In faith we walk through the places we care about and speak God’s blessing over them, asking God to establish his kingdom and to release hearts to respond to the good news of his saving love.
A prayer walk allows us to pray with our eyes open, attending to the people and places around us. A prayer walk invites us to listen to the promptings of the Spirit and to pray the prayers he lays on our hearts. A prayer walk is a visible sign of our commitment to serve others and our desire to be bearers of Christ’s transforming presence in his world.
This Prayer walk briefing note gives ideas and advice on how you might carry out a prayer walk in your context.
The Transforming Prayer Community met for a Prayer Walk and Picnic at Debdale Park over the summer. Led by Bishop Mark, the walk provided lots of opportunities to stop and pray for creation, schools, communities and more, while prayer activities were provided for the younger prayer walkers. The warm weather was a blessing and sunglasses, sun hats and drinks bottles were all needed! Keep an eye out for our next walk taking place during Lent 2025.
