March 10thPraying Around the World
Every two months, Mennonites and other Anabaptists from around the world gather to pray during Mennonite World Conference’s Online Prayer Hour—and people from Mennonite Church Manitoba congregations are encouraged to join in.
The one-hour Zoom meetings begin with a presentation related to something that is currently happening in the world which affects an MWC church. Recent presentations have included a focus on Venezuela, Myanmar, and Ukraine.
After this opening presentation, participants are divided into breakout rooms of 6-10 people organized by language: English, French, Spanish, Hindi, and Portuguese. The English groups can include people from North America and Europe, but also from India, Hong Kong, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Japan, or elsewhere. Breakout groups spend time sharing prayer concerns from their context and praying for one another. Then the full group gathers again and each breakout group leader shares briefly one prayer item from their group.
“The MWC Online Prayer Hour allows Anabaptists around the world to experience global solidarity in a tangible way,” says Danisa Ndlovu, MWC’s new Manager of Church Relations (see image). “By hearing firsthand what others are living, by praying together and being prayed for, we are compelled to understand just a bit better that we are all interconnected.”
Janet Plenert (Home Street), now Director of Communion Building for MWC, adds, “Our prayers become more focused and more personal when we hear what others are experiencing. Our political realities, our energy consumption, has real consequences for others, and through the Online Prayer Hour our eyes are opened to those realities.”
The Online Prayer Hour was started during the height of the Covid pandemic, in May of 2020. It takes place every two months on the third Friday of the month. The number of participants ranges from 55 to 85, with people joining from every continent except Antarctica. For more information or to register for an upcoming Online Prayer Hour, see www.mwc-cmm.org/en/prayers/online-prayer-hour.
Mennonite Church Canada is one of over 100 global churches which are part of Mennonite World Conference. We as Mennonite Church Manitoba participate in MWC through MC Canada—and this includes through our forwarding of funds to MC Canada, which in turn forwards funds to MWC. To give financially to support our participation in our global church family, see www.mennochurch.mb.ca/giving.