“Prayer is vital to the mission of the Church in our city.”

Janet Mabie
Special to Spur Ottawa

Pray Ottawa is inviting the Church to a start this new decade by lifting our voices to God, crying out as a city and for this city. This year marks Pray Ottawa’s fifth “City on our Knees” week of prayer, launching on Sunday, January 19. Christians all over Ottawa will gather in small groups and for multi-church events during the week of prayer, asking for direction and God’s providence over the capital in the year ahead.

“The Apostle Paul tells us that we must pray continually and for all people,” says Robert Douglas, this year’s coordinator of City on our Knees. “I take from those requests that prayer is vital to the mission of the Church in our city.”

This year’s theme is “Together we lift our voices to God.” City on our Knees offers prayer points to participants for each day of the prayer week. This year, the team asked local pastors to contribute suggestions toward these prayer points and began each point with the year’s theme.

The team also added an new interactive map, this year, listing City on our Knees events across the Ottawa. Those organizing related events can add them to the map through the City on our Knees website.

“It is a way to encourage leaders to look outside their own congregations, into the faith communities around their respective churches.”

“It enables people to see where and when an event or activity is being held so they can join in,” Douglas says, “and it’s an encouragement to believers to see the variety and extent of prayer going on during City on our Knees.”

There are many ways people can participate in City on our Knees, whether through neighbourhood prayer drives and walks, small group prayer, individual prayer (using the prayer points provided on the City on our Knees website), or by joining one of the multi-church prayer services across the city.

“City on our Knees 2020 is a great opportunity for the Church to start the new year, praying for the blessing of our city and for God’s favour and help in areas such as homelessness, drug addiction, schools, mental illness, policing, political leaders, and poverty in the city,” says Glen Humphreys, a City on our Knees organizer who attends Woodvale Pentecostal Church.

“City on our Knees has been an encouragement for me to see church leaders, intercessors, and congregants connecting and praying together,” says Nahia Haddad, who heads up Burning Hearts House of Prayer (BHHOP) and is a member of the City on our Knees organizing group. “I feel that it is a way to encourage leaders to look outside their own congregations, into the faith communities around their respective churches. It has even been a networking event to connect those leaders to pray together for our city.”

Through City on our Knees, Haddad has seen God work mightily at BHHOP.

“Last year BHHOP hosted daily prayer for City on our Knees. On one occasion, as we were praying, a couple of leaders from BHHOP brought a mother and son from the Native community to learn more about Jesus. It ended up in the salvation of both souls.”

Haddad says City on our Knees has also inspired BHHOP to lead monthly “night watches” to pray for the city.

“My hope for 2020 is to have monthly united praise and worship nights and to encourage gatherings throughout the year, as well,” Haddad states. “I believe more churches are participating in City on our Knees, each year, bringing down walls of division. Praise God!”