Last Saturday (3rd February 2018) the County’s Anglican Cathedral in Blackburn hosted a Festival of Prayer and everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, from parishes across Lancashire was invited!

More than 300 people came to the event.

The all-age event was a chance to explore different ways of engaging with God through prayer. It followed a similar event entirely focused on the Eucharist in 2017.

The Eucharist celebrant was the Bishop of Burnley, Rt Rev Philip North and the event’s keynote address was delivered by well-known broadcaster Canon Angela Tilby. You can read the text of the address here.

Bishop Philip said:

“Without prayer, the ministry and mission of the Diocese will come to nothing. The Diocesan Festival of Prayer on February 3 included a Messy Church event all day for youngsters and 10 fantastic workshops for everyone else.

“This was a day to introduce people to new ways of praying. Many people struggle to pray and many others are unaware of the vast range of ways of praying. This all-age event helped make people more effective disciples and witnesses through more effective prayer.”

Messy Church took place in the Cathedral Crypt and ran for most of the day from 10.45am-2.30pm.

Ten prayer workshops will be held in the afternoon from 1pm-2.30pm. The workshops were led by guest speakers including Rt Rev Julian Henderson, the Bishop of Blackburn and The Venerable Michael Everitt, Archdeacon of Lancaster.

The Messy Church part of the event was a great opportunity for children to look at prayer in their own way at the Cathedral, while their adult counterparts did the same.

A gallery of images from the day is available here