24/7 Prayer in Christchurch

The rise of prayer chapels throughout the Christian Church is, I believe, is truly needed in this day and age. It will be at the heart of all our evangelising efforts to make disciples in our world today. 

Did you know there is a Catholic Prayer Chapel in Christchurch that has had 24/7 prayer for the last 6 years?! 

On June 30th 2013, the late Bishop Barry Jones opened a prayer chapel for the Catholic Church in Christchurch. This chapel has been open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week since then. People commit to signing up for one hour per week and we aim to have two people rostered for every hour of the week, therefore the chapel is never empty. Currently there is at least one person praying every hour during the week. Currently we have about 270 people who are rostered for one hour or more a week.

When Bishop Barry opened the chapel, he wanted every Catholic in the Diocese to “grow in closeness to Jesus”. As we all know, the heart of the Christian life is a deep, personal, encounter with Jesus Christ.

Having people sign up for an hour a week means that people make a commitment to pray even when they don’t feel like it. People have said to me that they sometimes don’t feel like going but when they do, they are so glad they did.

For me, one of the joys of praying in the chapel has been the discovery of praying during the night. It is a beautiful time to pray. It is not easy to wake up and drive to the chapel, but we have many people who do this week after week. One person drives from Methven for his hour on a Saturday morning at 3am. Another person does 6 hours a week during the night.
 
A French Catholic Priest says that he believes “Prayer will give birth to all renewal in society and the world”. He says that the “most useful thing the church can do today is to give people a thirst for prayer and teach them how to pray” because “what the world needs most, are people who are in real and profound communion with God through Prayer”. 

Matt O’Connell, Evangelisation Coordinator, Catholic Diocese of Christchurch 2019