A UK evangelist named Christian Forster reports:
On Tuesday this week [12 June] over ninety senior leaders from church, commerce, culture and politics met in St Mary’s Undercroft directly beneath the House of Commons to listen to Jesus in silence for an hour and then to feedback what they felt He was saying to the nation…
After listening together for an hour in silence, two hours of initial responses where taken in Committee Room 16 hosted by Fiona Bruce MP. Sixty or so participants where able to speak briefly on what the Lord had said to them, further written words are being collected and collated so that a word to church and nation can be released.
An “initial summary” follows, including the following:
Our nation and its church have turned away from God and His standards and we are beginning to see and feel the resulting judgement.
The shaking of every part of man’s world-wide economic, social, political and religious systems has begun. It will be a time of great humbling, purification and refining in every aspect of society. Only what is built on the foundations that God requires will be permitted to remain – righteousness, truth and justice.
When the judgement has run its course, God has promised to restore us. This restoration must follow God’s revealed strategies and guidelines and not be led astray again by Man’s initiatives and good ideas.
According to Forster, the event was “issued by the Organising group, a coalition of ministries under the banner ”Together for the Nation’ chaired by the Maranatha Prayer Community.”
The Maranatha Community is a para-church organisation, created in 1981 by Dennis Wrigley (a Methodist layman) and Mgr. Michael Buckley, a Roman Catholic priest. As well as holding religious meetings, it provides briefing for parliamentarians and makes submissions on various topics, and issues (rather dull-looking) leaflets warning about how the UK is in moral crisis. There is a strong emphasis on the supernatural, with members claiming to receive direct messages from God on the need for national repentance. The group’s publications include an article warning of “links between organisations promoting pedophilia and the gay movement”, and it has the support of Melanie Phillips for “warn[ing] against the Islamisation of Britain and Islam’s threat to the church” (in 2009 Wrigley took part in a meeting on the subject with Sam Solomon and Patrick Sookhdeo).
Fiona Bruce (not to be confused with the newsreader of that name) featured in a Financial Times article in 2010 about evangelicals in the Conservative Party. The report included details of an “open primary” for the safe seat of Congleton:
Bruce won comfortably, taking a majority of the 220 votes cast in the first round. But a rumour soon spread that most of her votes had come from members of the New Life church, a local evangelical congregation. Buses were alleged to have ferried 150 Christians from the church.
In truth, according to churchgoers and constituency officials alike, only between 40 and 60 of the people voting were parish regulars, and they made their own way to the meeting. Bruce had addressed the church shortly before the selection – but, then, all candidates had been welcome to do so.
“Together for the Nation”, meanwhile, is also the name of a conference recently organised by the Newfrontiers grouping of neo-Pentecostal churches; David Stroud, husband of former MP Philippa Stroud, is a pastor within this group, as was widely noted in 2010. However, the name is fairly generic and there might not be any direct connection.
Forster’s account does not make clear his own role in the Parliament meeting. Forster is the son of Roger and Faith Forster, two well-established neo-Pentecostal leaders in the UK, and according to his blurb, he “has a prophetic teaching gift with a strong ministry focus on healing and prophetic release and impartation”. Also:
Christen spent time in Pasadena, California taking classes at the Fuller Seminary. Here his teachers included Peter Wagner, John Wimber, Rick Warren and Donald McGavran. While in the U.S, Christen lived with Che Ahn, founder of Harvest International Ministries.
Wagner heads the “New Apostolic Reformation”, which teaches that Christians should seek to take control of seven domains in modern society: “government, business, education, arts and entertainment, family services, media, and the church” (Bruce Wilson has some background here, including links with Sarah Palin). Leaders of the movement (“Apostles”) claim to be empowered by God with spiritual gifts, and rival perspectives on the world are placed within a demonology of malign supernatural forces, to be battled through spiritual warfare.
Forster is also advertising what appears to be a tie-in event, called “United Kingdom Come” and billed as “An Evening of Prophetic Prayer for Parliament and Government”:
This is an unprecedented time for the United Kingdom: financially, politically, structurally, culturally and spiritually the Nation stands at a crossroads.
Over this next month, national elders from Church, State, Culture and Commerce will be waiting on the Lord to hear heaven’s thoughts amongst the clamour of human wisdom. This will form a backdrop to an evening of prayer for the redemption, revival and reformation of these islands, this nation of nations.
Maranatha is among the groups supporting this event, which will be hosted by Christians in Government.
(H/T God and Politics UK)
Filed under: Uncategorized
The New Apostolic Reformation is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever heard of. There was a teacher at my fundamentalist school who was hugely into it, although I didn’t know it by name at the time.
She was always talking about demonic strongholds over buildings and cities, and advocating improbable conspiracy theories involving freemasons. That’s the big relief really: the views of the group are too extreme, I think (hope!), to gain a lot of traction. But if they have a link to parliament, however tenuous, that’s extremely worrying.
In fact, I’d be worried about anyone who claims to hear the voice of God having a hand in policy decisions.
Thanks for the H/T Richard.
Prayer events appear to be a regular occurrence in and around Parliament. There are many Christian groups who believe it is important that politicians and this nation are prayed for. These times of praying and listening to God are not then used to lobby or affect policy decisions. There are very, very few Christians that I am aware of in the UK who are actively trying get into power to take control of government.
Christen Forster has been involved in organising the events, but the requests for the event have come from those working in government. As I see it they believe that God’s guidance and favour will benefit our nation and that to exclude faith from politics will be detrimental to everyone.
The United Kingdom Come event is also supported by 24-7 Prayer and Global Day of Prayer, both of whom are widely respected within the church community. What these Christian groups are doing is no more than should be expected of those who take their faith seriously.
wasn’t Ruth Kelly a member of Opus Dei? You can’t get more ominous than a member of that fanatical cult right in the Blair cabinet! And I speak as a practicing Catholic.