Island that’s united in prayer!

Creative prayer events are uniting Isle of Wight churches to intercede for their island. Richard Buxton guided Direction through the Wight Church Network’s annual calendar.

 

For the past two decades, the Wight Church Network has been active in bringing together Bible-believing churches on the Isle of Wight.

Then three years ago, the group had the idea to introduce island-wide events to mobilise prayer.

As they considered who might lead the project, they didn’t have far to look.

Attending Ryde Elim were Richard and Rajinder Buxton, who before moving to the island had spent 25 years pastoring Ealing Christian Centre (now known as Ealing Community Church) and 20 years leading its 24/7 prayer centre.

“Prayer is a priority for us, so we were happy to take on the role,” Richard says, adding that he was keen to build on the legacy of his son-in-law, Ryde Elim pastor Paul Meredith, who helped form the Network.

Richard and Rajinder have spent the past two years building an active calendar of creative events for the interdenominational group to immerse the island in prayer.

May

“We started in May last year, on Pentecost Sunday, and decided the best way to begin would be with spiritual warfare prayers, because the island has a long history of occult activities,” Richard says.

“There are a number of monuments associated with that inland, and we also wanted to pray around the coast and at the ferry ports. There are New Age shops and a well-known cliff-top suicide area at Culver Down to pray over too.”

Between 4pm and 5pm that day, small groups representing more than 12 different denominations and house groups gathered enthusiastically to cover 42 locations in prayer.

“I prepared a list of biblical declarations and spiritual warfare prayers because the Bible says we’re not wrestling against flesh and blood but principalities and powers,” says Richard.

“Many of the churches hadn’t done anything like this before, but afterwards several said that knowing they were all making the same declaration at the same time with hundreds of other Christians encouraged them.”

The day was so popular that it was repeated on this year’s Pentecost Sunday in June, and is now planned to be a regular annual event.

October

The Network is gearing up this month to repeat another successful event trialled last year – a six-hour prayer gathering at Newport Methodist Church.

“We were keen to make each event different, so for October’s we divided the time into hour-long slots and devoted each one to a different part of the island.

“For each slot we got leaders from that hour’s area to pray for their part of the island and lead worship. We had around 14 leaders from different churches and denominations praying throughout the time.

“We are aiming that this year’s gathering will follow a similar format and meet in Newport in October.”

February

In the colder winter season, Richard and Rajinder took a different tack and organised a 24-hour Zoom prayer gathering on 28 February-1 March.

From 8pm on Friday to 8pm on Saturday, people were invited to attend any of 48 half-hour slots, led by leaders from various churches.

“We had good attendance all the way through, even at the early morning slots,” says Richard. Again, the plan is to repeat the meeting next year.

Prayer works

Since beginning this calendar of prayer, Richard says positive reports have been coming in. Local people have said that no suicides have taken place in Culver Down since May 2024, while a number of churches reported new people dropping in to Sunday services after February’s 24-hour prayer.

“It’s early days, but we do feel that something’s happening,” says Richard. The Network’s slogan is ‘One island, one church’ and it’s good to see how the churches are working together.

“We’re all Bible-believing Christians wanting to see the Kingdom of God grow,” says Richard.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.