Prayer is both simple and profound. It changes us and the world. It moves us to action and stirs us out of our complacency.

When we pray repeatedly, publicly and privately, there is a slow conversion of the heart to the priorities of God. Grace seeps into the fractures and failings of our humanity, as well as into the hopes and longings of the soul.

Our Transforming Prayer Community is our diocese-wide community that seeks to connect and reconnect us with this simple vocation to pray.

Monthly Prayer Diary

The Prayer Diary for our diocese is published every month and available to download using the links below.

We invite you to become a part of our Prayer Community. All that we ask you to do is make a daily commitment to say:

1. The Lord’s Prayer 
2. Prayer for Our Diocese
3. The Prayer for your local area or the Prayer for Peace

Our Vision for the Prayer Community

Lord, teach us to pray.

Prayer, at its heart, is simple: it is all about God and being where we can meet him and be transformed by him. It is not about having fancy words or being clever, or about being holier than others. It is about being where God can show us the endlessness of that grace and love which invites us to respond with hope and joy. Human beings are made in and for God. Prayer, as our response to him, is as natural as breathing. As God breathes life into his creation, he invites us to use our breath freely in praise and thanksgiving and ask for his Kingdom of justice and mercy to come.

Our Transforming Prayer Community is all about connecting and reconnecting with this simple vocation to pray. In the face of a messy, complex world which pulls us in all sorts of directions, our diocesan prayer community which will help each of us and our churches be better aligned with God’s call on our lives. This call invites us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and be thankful. Prayer takes us to the solid ground of our hope on which the Kingdom is built: Jesus Christ. The first disciples cried out to Jesus ‘Lord teach us to pray.’ That is our longing too. Jesus, in his love, provides us with the family prayer on which we can rely: The Lord’s Prayer. The anchor for our Transforming Prayer Community is a commitment, then, to pray the Lord’s Prayer each day.

We, the people of Manchester Diocese, seek to serve over two million people in Greater Manchester and Rossendale. The Transforming Prayer Community is also an invitation, then, to commit to pray for the communities of which we are part. Our diocesan Prayer of Thanksgiving and Hope articulates our longings for God’s transformation in the local church, the Diocese, and for our communities: our thankfulness and need for refreshment, as well as our desire for all to know Jesus’s transforming love and for his Kingdom of justice, mercy and peace to come. Those who wish to be part of our Transforming Prayer Community are asked simply to make time to pray the diocesan prayer along with the Lord’s Prayer each day.*

Prayers to say each day

You can download these prayers here:

Prayer Walks

The purpose of a prayer walk is to express our love for our communities by lifting them before God in prayer. In faith we walk through the places we care about and speak God’s blessing over them, asking God to establish his kingdom and to release hearts to respond to the good news of his saving love.

A prayer walk allows us to pray with our eyes open, attending to the people and places around us. It invites us to listen to the promptings of the Spirit and to pray the prayers he lays on our hearts. A prayer walk is a visible sign of our commitment to serve others and our desire to be bearers of Christ’s transforming presence in his world.

This Prayer walk briefing note gives ideas and advice on how you might carry out a prayer walk in your context. 

The Transforming Prayer Community meets a few times a year for a Prayer Walk and Picnic. Led by Bishop Mark, the walks provid lots of opportunities to stop and pray for creation, schools, communities and more, while prayer activities are provided for the younger prayer walkers.

Future prayer walks will be advertised at the link below.