Thy Kingdom Come Events

TKC Events in the Diocese of Sheffield

Prayer Around the Globe

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a global wave of prayer, joining with our link dioceses in Bondo (2 hours ahead of BST) & Argentina (4 hours behind BST). We are also partnering with Christchurch Diocese in New Zealand (13 hours ahead of BST), who have developed a prayer community like our own. At Pentecost, people from many nations in Jerusalem heard the good news of Jesus in their own language. What better time could there be to celebrate this by praying with our brothers and sisters from other nations! 

• When: Saturday 7 June
• Where: around the world and around our diocese
• How: we are looking for churches to ‘sponsor’ an hour in the time that Sheffield Diocese is responsible for. If your church would like to take an hour, contact John Hibberd (john.hibberd@sheffield.anglican.org). We will also have two Zoom sessions set up when we can pray together with people from Bondo and then from Argentina via online link (details nearer the time).
• What: we will provide you digital materials from TKC to run your church’s hour of prayer. These are all based this year on the Lord’s Prayer.

Thy Kingdom Come Sunday (the Sunday after Ascension)

Bishop Pete wrote in his April mailing that we could ‘observe the Sunday after Ascension as Thy Kingdom Come Sunday, as we pray for the reign of our Ascended Lord to be evident in our world’.

• Celebrate this in your own church & encourage people to make use of the week up to Pentecost to pray or join in with TKC prayer events
• Lectionary readings Acts 16:16-34 (Paul & Silas in Philippi) and John 17:20-end (Jesus prays for all who will believe) lend themselves well to this theme.
• You could make use of the Novena theme for Day 4 ‘Your will be done’
• We will try to produce a page of resources to mark TKC Sunday

Central Events

Back to the Bangers

• When: Sunday 1 June, 4 – 5pm
• Where: Sheffield Cathedral
• What: New to Sheffield Cathedral, this feel-good event brings back the joy of school assemblies with all your favourite classics – from Shine Jesus Shine to This Little Light of Mine – in the awe-inspiring surroundings of the Cathedral.
  Sing your heart out with on-screen lyrics and live piano accompaniment. Enjoy a fully stocked licensed bar, complimentary glow stick bracelets, and an evening full of laughter and nostalgia. It’s the school hall experience, reimagined for grown-ups.

Pentecost Eve event

• Pentecost Vigil Mass. 4pm at St Leonard’s Scawsby, DN5 8QE. The liturgy follows the unfolding biblical story of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
• This service will include a confirmation

Special Evensong

• When: Sunday 8 June, time TBC
• Where: Sheffield Cathedral
• What: our Minsters and a number of other churches in the diocese are reaching out into their communities through choirs and music ministry. They have teamed up with the Cathedral to put on a special extended Evensong. This is again a great event to invite people to, and an appropriate way to finish our 10 days of Thy Kingdom Come

Pilgrimage Events

Last year, we had local pilgrimage events in each deanery. This year, we’re trying a different approach with fewer events but looking to create some more enduring one-day local pilgrimage trails.

Five Churches walk

• When: Wednesday 4 June
• Starting point: St John the Baptist, Wales, S26 5LQ
• Praying round a 10-mile route taking in Todwick, South Anston, Thorpe Salvin, Harthill & Wales. You will need walking boots & a packed lunch. We will stop to pray at each church & along the way
• Route information
• Participant information: coming soon

Six Churches walk

• When: Saturday 31 May, 9am
• Starting point: Holy Trinity, Elsecar, S74 8HY
• Praying round a 10-mile route taking in Wentworth Woodhouse, Wath-upon-Dearne, Brampton Bierlow, West Melton and Elsecar. You will need walking boots & a packed lunch. We will stop to pray at each church & along the way.
• Route information
• Participant information: coming soon

Details of further pilgrimage events will be listed here once they are available.

Daily morning prayers 

With the 2025 Prayer Community Facebook group (7.30am daily). 

The TKC 10th Anniversary video can be used to stir up engagement in these ten days of prayer.

Free video material is added to the TKC website regularly.

Prayer journals & the Novena are provided FREE but you have to pay P&P for the printed versions. Note that they are available for free pdf download from the TKC website. The Novena & Prayer Journal both focus on the Lord’s Prayer. They have been written by Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, who is teaching on the same theme as part of the Faith in the North initiative (in Sheffield in June 2025):

• Prayer journal
• Novena

You can access printed resources from the CPO website.

Youth & children’s resources

Digital Detox

TKC’s offering for youth this year focuses on a digital detox with a journal and guidelines for group activities, including an overnight event. There is a version of this for adults too. The video helpfully explains that this is not being anti-tech but just recognising the value of disconnecting sometimes from the relentless onslaught of the online world to meet with God.

Resources

• Digital Detox journal
• Digital Detox session guides
• Digital Detox adult devotional
• Digital Detox video

Children’s material

There are some excellent resources for teaching based around the Lord’s Prayer. These are suitable for schools as well as children’s groups:

• The Lord’s Prayer song video
• Supporting materials / information:
  • News story from Archbishop of York
  
  
  • Faith in the North: A full suite of materials relating to the Lord’s Prayer
  
  
  • Songs for Schools: Nick & Becky’s Drake’s wider approach to engaging and contemporary collective worship in schools.

Thy Kingdom Come, now celebrating its tenth year, has grown from a call to the Church of England to engage in evangelistic prayer from Ascension to Pentecost to be a world-wide wave of prayer touching some 180 countries and 85 Christian denominations.

The Archbishop has written to bishops to encourage churches ‘to make the Sunday After the Ascension a ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ Sunday as we pray for the reign of our Ascended Lord to be evident in our world’.

Here are some resources to help you to do this. They are in three sections:

1. For churches using the lectionary and fitting the theme within a standard order of service. Essentially, these focus on the ministry of the Word.
2. For churches who would like to change the readings to fit with Thy Kingdom Come 2025’s theme of the Lord’s Prayer.
3. For churches planning an all-age act of worship, who need creative resources for the whole of the service.

Songs / Hymns:

Choices here are likely to be dictated more by what is known locally and the style of the church service. If you are looking for Lord’s Prayer or TKC songs, here are some:

• The Lord’s Prayer – Hillsong Worship
• The Lord’s Prayer – Matt Maher
• The Lord’s Prayer – Kings Return
• We Seek Your Kingdom – Noel Robinson, Lou Fellingham, Andy Flannagan, Donna Akodu

Lectionary and Common Worship

Collect for Thy Kingdom Come:

Almighty God,
your ascended Son has sent us into the world
to preach the good news of your kingdom:
inspire us with your Spirit
and fill our hearts with the fire of your love,
that all who hear your Word may be drawn to you,
through Jesus Christ our Lord

Other liturgical material for TKC:

• Daily Prayer from 2019
• TKC 2020 has an order for the Eucharist for Pentecost, some of which you could adapt

Lectionary readings:

• Acts 16:16-34. Philippi marked the entry of the gospel into Europe. This passage shows some of the resistance (physical and spiritual) to the gospel, as well as the cost of making Jesus known. It ends with a story of salvation and a memorable one-verse summary of the good news of Jesus (v31).
• John 17:20-26. Jesus prays for all those who will believe as the gospel is preached, His vision extends to the whole world and he emphasises the need for Christians to be united in the task – a key facet of TKC.

It would not be difficult to link these readings to TKC Sunday and, in particular, to the challenge to ‘Pray for five’ – for five people we know and love to explore and find faith.

You could adapt the intercessions on that Sunday to focus around these themes.

Please be sure too to advertise our TKC events (see above). People might be inspired to join in with a pilgrimage walk or Prayer around the Globe or attend a special event.

Following a Lord’s Prayer theme

This assumes that you are following Common Worship liturgy in other respects. So, this section is simply about providing other readings / resources for the liturgy of the Word.

Bible Readings:

• Luke 11: 1-4 or 11:1-13. This version places the teaching in a direct request to Jesus. The longer reading adds several lessons in why we can trust God.
• Matthew 6:9-13 or 6:5-15. The longer reading allows you to explore attitudes in prayer around doing it without show, trusting God, and being forgiving.

TKC Resources:

• Prayer journal for the 10 days
• Novena for the 10 days
• The theme for the Sunday after Ascension is ‘Your will be done …’ (Day 4). You could follow that, or select another theme, or use the whole resource as an overview to explore the Lord’s Prayer.

When you come to the Lord’s Prayer in the liturgy, try not to rush it but encourage people to reflect on what they heard earlier. You could also adapt the intercessions to pick up Jesus’ pattern of prayer in the Lord’s Prayer.

All-Age TKC Sunday

As with the liturgical worship resources, you might already have a tried and tested way to run all-age events. If so, it is likely that you will simply be looking for some creative ways to address this particular theme. Explore the excellent resources below.

Visit the Thy Come Kingdom Resources page. There you will find a link to a page with lots of Lord’s Prayer resources, including:

• Prayer Stations
• Lord’s Prayer Labyrinth
• Lord’s Prayer Leaflet
• Lord’s Prayer in British Sign Language
• As we celebrate Pentecost, there is a resource with the Lord’s Prayer spoken in multiple languages
• Worship for Everyone resource pack, including a new song written for Thy Kingdom Come. You have to register an email address to download this but it is free.

Diocesan Prayer Community

Our diocesan prayer community exists to pray for the growth of the churches in our diocese, very much in line with the aims of Thy Kingdom Come. These 10 days of prayer would be a good time to remind people that it exists and encourage them to join it. They can do so via:

• Diocesan Website: Signing up is easy. Members receive a weekly email with prayer themes and three Bible reflections to encourage them as disciples of Jesus.
• Facebook: Request to join the Facebook group. Bible reflections appear three times each week.