PRAYER@PARLIAMENT

The final Prayer @ Parliament took place on 10 August 2017 in the Grand Hall of Parliament. It was very gratifying to see Christians from 16 Denominations, 50 Churches and 17 Towns, cities ranging from Auckland in the North to Christchurch in the South in near capacity numbers gather together to Pray for our Nation and especially the General Election on 23 September 2017.

The National Anthem was as usual sung with great pride and fervour. We have one of the best National Anthems in the world. Comprehensive prayer set to music.

The three prayer tracks focussed on the coming Election:

Prayer Track 1 was on “Challenges Candidates face at Election Time”. Input was from Hon Chester Borrows who has been in six Election Campaigns.

Prayer pointers:

• Leaders of all parties
• Address issues and not attack people
• A "Clean" Campaign
• Configuration of New Parliament

 

Prayer Track 2 was on Retiring MPs. About 15 MPs have indicated they are retiring. Two of them were Christian MPs who were strong supporters of Prayer @ Parliament, namely Hon Chester Borrows (after 12 years) and Hon Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga (after 9 years). We thank them for their contribution and wish them well as a new chapter opens up for them. The names of all 15 were read out for prayer.

Prayer Pointers:

• Next Chapter
• Families
• Psychological Adjustments

 

Prayer Track 3 was on Voter Education and Mobilisation. Pastor Rasik Ranchord spoke about the alarming statistics in regard to voting in NZ. One million people did not vote in the last Election. About 750,000 eligible New Zealanders enrolled but did not vote. Another 250,000 did not even enroll, though it is required by law. Correlating Voting Statistic with Religious affiliation statistics from 2013 Census, the number of Christians who did not vote runs into hundreds of thousands. A very conservative figure would be 250,000! This is a serious dereliction of our civic duty. To address this issue Pastor Rasik has launched the PIEVE (rhymes with five) Project. PIEVE is an acronym for Prayer, Information, Enrollment, Voting, Encouraging others. This is a five-point plan of action to educate and mobilise Christians in relation to their civic responsibilities.

Prayer Pointers:

• Greater voter turnout
• Greater youth participation
• Greater Christian participation
• Christians will take their civic duties seriously
• Christian leaders will educate their people re civic duties
• Christian incumbents and new candidates
• PIEVE Project

Resources:

• VOTE SMART 2) GOD, GOSPEL, AND GOVERNMENT - by Rasik Ranchord
• WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE INVOLVED IN GOVERNMENT’ - by Chester Borrows, Gordon Copeland and Ross Robertson. (Three present and past Christian MP’s from 3 different parties written from an MP’s perspective).

These resources are available from the downloads page, please download them and circulate widely.

Photos from this and previous gatherings are available here.

The Bible Readings were done by Joanne Hayes MP and Lalita Ranchord. The evening concluded with the singing of “How Great Thou Art!” The Grand hall resounded with the praises of God’s people. The seat of power had been turned into an altar of prayer and praise!