This coming Sunday, the church celebrates Pentecost, the occasion 50 days after Easter when Christ’s disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit and spoke Christ’s message in different languages, such that the crowds who were listening understood, each in his or her own language (Acts 2:1-11). Pentecost, therefore, marks the beginning of the church: the Body of Christ here on Earth sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit to be as Christ to the world. Central to the mission of the church (that is, to our mission) must be to continue Christ’s ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-21), as the disciples began to do, speaking a common message in different tongues to a diverse people.

One way to continue Christ’s ministry of reconciliation is to pray for one another, and ourselves that we may all draw closer to God and to one another. This is the principle aim of the “Thy Kingdom Come” initiative, which encourages individuals, groups and churches all to pray for ourselves and for five other people, during the period from the Feast of the Ascension (10 May) until Pentecost (20 May). As a school, we have drawn on the prayer resources provided on the website (https://www.thykingdomcome.global/prayerresources#churches), in our chapel assemblies and dedicated a Sisters of Christ Society (SOCS) meeting to praying for one another. You may have noticed that we have been posting a different prayer on our Facebook and Twitter sites each day, during this time. I encourage you to explore the site and consider drawing on the resources and ideas on the site to facilitate your own prayers, even beyond Pentecost.

Revd Claudia Coustas