In the lead-up to Pentecost weekend, 6 to 8 June, churches throughout the UK are preparing for a 36-hour, round-the-clock prayer event, marking a significant part of the broader Shine Your Light 2025 evangelism initiative.
The campaign, organised by the National Day of Prayer and Worship (NDOPW), aims to bring together believers in prayer, unity, and public witness at a time of rising national division and cultural unrest.
It follows a parliamentary reception at Portcullis House on Westminster earlier this month, which brought together a broad coalition of more than 100 Christian leaders from over 60 Christian bodies to officially begin Shine Your Light 2025.
Organised in collaboration with MP Jim Shannon, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the International Freedom of Religion and Belief, the reception celebrated the campaign’s momentum and previewed upcoming events aimed at reclaiming public faith in Britain.
The flagship event for Pentecost weekend will be 72 continuous hours of united prayer for the UK, taking place online through NDOPW’s Zoom-based “Prayer Room”.
Thousands of believers from all four nations of the UK are expected to take part.
The prayer marathon will begin at midnight on Thursday 5 June, with worship from gospel musician Noel Robinson and an address by Dr Jonathan Oloyede, NDOPW and Shine Your Light founder and convenor.
“At a time where many church leaders are reporting God at work across our nation in new and surprising ways, our response as a Church must be to pray earnestly for a mighty moving of God’s Spirit, and for all Christians to be open to be led by the Spirit wherever he may lead,” Dr Oloyede said.
Additional highlights over the weekend include a time of intercessory prayer on Saturday afternoon, offering spiritual “prayer cover” for The King’s Army evangelistic outreach taking place at Trafalgar Square in central London.
At 7pm on Sunday, Dr Oloyede will lead a live-streamed Pentecost Sunday prayer session from Canterbury.
Over the course of the weekend, partner churches will host their own evangelistic activities, prayer walks, and outreach events in tandem with the national effort - continuing the street-level focus that saw over 1,500 churches take part in December’s Shine Your Light Christmas events across town centres and marketplaces.
The Pentecost weekend of prayer has drawn endorsement from the Evangelical Alliance and a growing number of national church bodies.
Since its inception in 2023, Shine Your Light has witnessed rapid growth. Church involvement has more than doubled in a year, with congregations from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland increasingly joining the movement.
At the Westminster event, church leaders shared testimonies about the impact from last year’s Christmas outreach efforts in cities including Birmingham, Bedford, and Canterbury, and from rural communities in Wales and Scotland.
Dr Oloyede, in his keynote remarks, stressed the symbolic and spiritual importance of launching the campaign in Parliament: “Seeing over 100 Leaders in Parliament this week speaks of how much the Lord's hand is on this call for mission, unity, and prayer to come together. We can no longer separate the three - but bring them together as one.
“Shine Your Light has grown since 2023, but there is more that we need to do as the Church to reclaim our confidence in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Praying at the heart of Westminster is a symbolic sign of the ripples needing to go out. As we prepare for Pentecost in a few weeks’ time, let us start praying for our communities that they would be open to the move of the same Holy Spirit which fell at Pentecost.”
MP Jim Shannon echoed these sentiments: “Seeing many Christians from across the whole of the Isles in Parliament was exactly what the spirit of Shine Your Light is about.
“I commend the boldness of Christians taking a stand to make sure that God's light is visible in our world of darkness.
“I am expectant of greater things in 2025 if we can multiply the passion in the room to every community in these Isles. I am praying for what God might do next.”
