Accord prayer concerts came into being in September 07. For two and a half years previously, a group of us - three intercession leaders from three different churches - had been meeting together on a regular basis to pray for the city. Much of the prayer that had gone up to heaven in that time concerned the unity of the churches, the leaders of churches and for God's favour and blessing on them and their people. We were following in the footsteps of many other prayer groups that had been faithful in praying over many years. Our desire was and is to see God's glory in our city of Lancaster.

Sometime about April 07 we began to feel that it was time to widen out the prayer to involve as many Christians in the city who had a heart to get together from different denominations in order to pray in unity for Lancaster, and so Accord was born.

We called the prayer concerts Accord from Acts 1 where the disciples "continued with one accord in prayer and supplications" and Acts 2 when on the day of Pentecost they "were all together with one accord in one place" and the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. The word 'accord' comes from two Greek words, 'homou' ? meaning at the same time and place, and 'thumos' meaning passion, so the concerts are opportunities for God's people to come together in one place with passion for Jesus and passion to pray that His Kingdom will come on earth, in Lancaster, as it is in heaven. The concerts are times of worship and prayer where our priority is the presence of Jesus in our midst.

Our vision statement is ? 'To gather together in unity as the people of God, demonstrating our love for Him and for one another, lifting up the name of Jesus in worship and offering up prayers in His name, that we may see His Kingdom come in our city.'

An offshoot from the Accord concerts has been a gathering of leaders who meet regularly once a month to have times of fellowship together. This grew out of our desire to share the vision of the prayer concerts with the leaders of churches in the city. There were seven leaders at that first meeting and now there is a list of about 25 who have expressed interest, with 9-14 at present meeting on a monthly basis. Please pray for our leaders and their meetings together that they might continue to grow in fellowship one with another.

There have now been nine Accord prayer concerts at six different churches and it has and continues to be a huge learning curve to us, as "we have never been this way before." So far we have concentrated on praying about various aspects of unity and in the last concert we prayed for the youth of the city. Keep checking the event list for the date of the next prayer concert. Come and join with us in prayer so that we may see God move mightily in our city, in answer to our heartfelt cries.

Dorothy McKay