St James The Great

​Old Milverton, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

​"Fire Unlocked"

St. Margaret’s Rectory, Whitnash. CV31 2HJ

Dear Friends,

“Fire Unlocked”

I do hope that you are well, and that for you the further easing of lock-down restrictions will prove liberating and a blessing. This lifting of such regulations means that I am glad to be able to share with you the plans to prayer walk every road, street and lane of our Deanery of Warwick and Leamington this summer. Speaking as the Area Dean for this Deanery, I am delighted that this initiative is happening in our neighbourhood.

The “Fire Unlocked” prayer walking app will go live from 1st – 18th July.

The “Fire unlocked” app is a feature which you can download onto a mobile device. It will show all the roads of our Deanery in a certain colour. Once prayer walked, the road can be highlighted in another colour to show other users of the app that it has been covered in prayer. They can choose to walk another not-yet prayed down road. (Although of course roads can be prayed down more than once!)

Christians believe in a loving Lord who answers prayer. By walking past every home, business, shop etc in the Deanery we have the opportunity to pray for blessing on the occupants and their lives.

We get the opportunity to pray for healing and help for those who need it. We may not know the details, but in people’s lives and households there may be pain and suffering. As we walk and pray, we can bring a wave of God’s love along their street which we hope will bring healing and help.

We can ask God to make His love in Jesus known to the people in the homes, shops, schools, businesses and workplaces we walk by.

We might get the opportunity to talk to people informally in conversations that enable us to share our hope in Christ that can be theirs too.

It gives us the opportunity to get to know other neighbourhoods in the Deanery. To become more familiar with other Parishes and their mission contexts. 

By doing this together as Parishes and a Deanery, our sense of common purpose, mission and fellowship is enhanced and strengthened. 

Even if prayer walking is not possible for you, there will still be ways to be involved. Looking at the map of the Deanery, you will be able to prayer walk roads in heart and mind even if not by foot! 

Recently we have been praying in line with the Archbishop’s initiative “Thy Kingdom come.” Prayer is really where our part in asking for God’s Kingdom to come on Earth as in Heaven begins. We can literally “walk our way” from lockdown to freedom in Christ. And by so doing, we pray that many “not yet” believers in Jesus will join us on the journey, - the adventure that is following Jesus, The Way, The Truth and The Life.

Thank you for being involved as you can.

Richard

When the fire of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon Jesus' Disciples they praised God and prayed. They took the love of God into the market places, neighbourhoods and streets starting right where they lived.

Having been in lockdown and in hiding because of fear, they powerfully preached and demonstrated the Good News of Jesus' life, death, resurrection and the hope of salvation.

"Fire unlocked" is an initiative of the Warwick and Leamington Deanery. It will involve prayer walking, literally or virtually, all of the roads of every sort in the Deanery during the period 1st - 18th July this summer. 

A special app has been created to enable this, and which will facilitate anyone's involvement using their mobile device. We do hope that you can be involved, and this is the link to the website and app:

www.fireunlocked.org

Our hope is that by prayer walking the streets of our communities, we will further fulfil the vocation of the Deanery to be a unit of mission and outreach. By prayer we want to take the outrageously generous love of God into every road of our Deanery!

As we pray that the world will be liberated from covid and come out of the lockdowns necessitated by the pandemic, our prayer is that our neighbours will know the greatest unlocking of all: That enabled by Jesus in answer to prayer.

We have assembled some great resources that you might find helpful as you prepare to prayer walk.

By doing this together as Parishes and a Deanery, our sense of common purpose, mission and fellowship is enhanced and strengthened.