Thousands of evangelicals across Europe celebrate unity with week of prayer
The Week of Prayer saw thousands of evangelicals come together
Tens of thousands of evangelicals across Europe came together to pray for the region and the church last month.
The European Evangelical Alliance's Week of Prayer 2018 was held from January 14 to 21 and was marked by multiple gatherings in France, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.
A key theme across the prayer gatherings was unity in the church and the plight of migrants, which has become a divisive issue across Europe as a result of tens of thousands of people trying to reach its shores across the Mediterranean.
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Romain Choisnet of the French Evangelical Alliance (CNEF) told Evangelical Focus that Christians came together to pray and reflect on the need to be 'compassionate with all those who are migrants'.
He said one prayer meeting had been attended by 900 evangelical Christians and that, together with gatherings held in many other cities in the country, there had been a 'strong mobilisation of evangelicals in France'.
In Germany, Idea magazine reports that migrants and refugees were among those who attended the prayer meetings.
Around 1,000 meetings were held across Germany, including in Hanover and Frankfurt, under the common theme of 'plurality'.
In Hungary, the prayer gatherings reflected on the privilege of religious freedom after the fall of communism.
'During the decades of communism, when the Evangelical Alliance was banned – together with the other Christian organisations – it was not possible to come together for an interdenominational prayer event,' said Istvan Horvath of the Hungarian Evangelical Alliance.
But the week of prayer was also a chance to re-charge and refresh their faith at the start of the new year.
The Week of Prayer joined Christians together in a daily Bible plan on the YouVersion app, with more than 3,000 people taking part with the Spanish language version.
Young Christian YouTubers in Spain also got involved in the week of prayer by creating short videos around biblical themes and prayer.
'The Week of Prayer was a great opportunity for the believers to dedicate their lives to Christ and for the unity of Christians – in the first full week of every year,' Horvath added.
