The Bishop of Barking, the Rt Revd David Hawkins is amongst the many church leaders that have welcomed the forthcoming Global Day of Prayer event, taking place at West Ham FC on Sunday 27 May 2007 as an opportunity for Christian denominations to foster greater relationships with each other.
He commented, "Britain's is home to a wide range of Christian traditions, each of them have something to offer and we all have something to learn from each other. The exciting thing about the Global Day of Prayer is that it will bring together Christians from different ethnicities and different expressions of the Christian faith to pray for unity, London and the World."The Rt Revd David Hawkins chairs the organising committee for The Global Day of Prayer London, an event instigated by former Muslim, Pastor Jonathan Oloyede, who is a member of the pastoral team at Glory House, one of London's largest Pentecostal churches.
The Global Day of Prayer was started by businessman Graham Power in South Africa in 2001 who felt God called him to bring South African Christians together for prayer. Over 45,000 people attended the first Global Day of Prayer event held at Newlands Rugby Stadium in Cape Town. The vision expanded to the whole of the African continent in 2003 and in 2005 Christians from 156 nations took part in the first ever Global Day of Prayer.
