Southwark: Harnessing tech for prayer

As well as those who faithfully pray the rosary in their parishes, modern technology is now enabling those with busy life styles who can't make it to the church prayer group, to nonetheless be part of a prayer community!

As part of the preparations for the Jubilee Year called for by Pope Francis, the Southwark Agency for Evangelisation and Catechesis together with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Southwark have created a massive community Whataspp group of intercessors praying for the priests and parishes of their archdiocese.

Each of the 19 local deaneries, now has a group praying the rosary for a different parish and its priests in their particular deanery on rota basis every day. Individuals who sign up are asked simply to pray one decade of the rosary when they can for the priest and the parish of that day.

Some of the deanery groups are bigger than others and some participants pray more than one decade. Thus Croydon deanery which has 25 intercessors offers 70 decades daily up for their priests and parishes. While other deaneries maybe have only two or three intercessors but who, nevertheless, still manage to between them pray 5-10 decades for their priests and parishes. Some extra keen intercessors even help with the intercession in other deaneries so everyone is covered with prayer.

Liz Corcoran, who set up the groups, estimates that about 250 people altogether are involved so far in the project with 300 + decades offered every day across the archdiocese. Not everyone prays every day, but the power of belonging to a larger group, and the pings of other intercessors, soon draw back those who forget. Thus far from losing members, the project is slowly growing as time goes on.

Those who would like to know more about the project should contact southwarkrenewal@gmail.com

There is likely to be an even greater surge in numbers this Advent, when the project will be rolled out more formally to every parish in the Southwark archdiocese and those not on Whatsapp will be invited to join too. Stephen Walsh, one of the organisers and a member of the Southwark Catholic Charismatic Renewal team, commented, "We began this initiative asking the people we knew. We do know that there are lots of people who have been praying the rosary for priests for many years. This initiative is just another way of creating an opportunity for people to come together in the "symphony of prayer" that Pope Francis is calling for and know that they are not alone in their prayers."

The prayer project, which began on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on 7th October 2024 will run until Pentecost Saturday, when there will be a special Southwark jubilee celebration at the Marian shrine at Aylesford. Archbishop John Wilson will be the main celebrant at a big outdoor Mass, and there are plans for activities of faith and fun for all the family on the day.

The Aylesford event which celebrates the 60th anniversary of Southwark becoming an archdiocese also ties in with Pope Francis' call to the Church to go on pilgrimage during the Jubilee Year. Parishes in Southwark are thus being encouraged to come by car or hire coaches to Aylesford for this day. Some intrepid walkers have even decided to walk to Aylesford. This walking pilgrimage will take five days, beginning at St George's cathedral on Monday 2nd June and arriving at Aylesford on Friday 6th June 2025, the night before the celebration day. The plan is for those who take part to stay in local parishes on the way, sleeping in church halls or in parishioners homes and having breakfast and Mass together before they set off each morning. It is expected that whereas some will walk the whole way, others will just join for a day or two.

Among these will be Fr Mario Nycz the parish priest of St Patrick's Chislehurst and Our Lady Help o Christians in Mottingham. This parish will be one of the stopping off places. The pilgrimage, he says, reminds him of his boyhood in Poland where it was common for groups to walk to the national Marian shrine in Czestochowa. Technology is even helping the pilgrims in this too, as the planned route has been uploaded onto an app so everyone who takes part will know the way to go.