Prayer at Baptist Assembly 2026

 

As Baptists gather in Harrogate for our annual Assembly, churches and congregations across our Baptist community are being invited to come together in prayer, writes Phil Jump

Our world and our nations face significant uncertainty at this time, and we too, as a Baptist family are recognising challenges and opportunities ahead of us. The call to prayer coincides with the Sunday morning gathering in Harrogate, and churches are invited to pause to pray in their own local services alongside this.

We offer the time of 11.05 am or as close to that as possible. This means that churches starting at 11 can join this movement of prayer immediately after an opening song or hymn, while those who start earlier are likely to include this immediately before the sermon. Not every service will be structured the same, but our vision is that as many as possible engage with this act of shared prayer.
 
The prayer that will be used at Assembly is offered for use in these local contexts. You can simply read it, or use a series of projected images to invite a congregation to share the words together. It is also available in video form for showing in a more reflective style. This is part of an Assembly 'rhythm of prayer' which is being led by the team from the North Western Baptist Association (NWBA). The act of prayer will be led by the Revd Jane Henderson, Co-team leader for NWBA.
 
The themes for this prayer seek to respond to prevailing world circumstances and our call as Christians to be beacons of hope amidst such struggle and uncertainty. It is a privilege to serve our Baptist community in a number of contexts, and many of the phrases offered reflect thoughts and prayers that have been shared in various gatherings in recent weeks. They also seek to draw on our historic covenant identity to be a people who are called to walk together in ways known and ways unknown, watching over one another in love.

The prayer, written and created by NWBA, can be accessed as a text copy, a powerpoint and a video which can be found below. 





 

Phil Jump is Regional Minister, Co-team leader of the North Western Baptist Association