Record Numbers for Thy Kingdom Come

After the triumph of 2020’s event, despite lockdowns and the height of the Covid-19 crisis, national and international faith communities proved that there was only more positive growth and support to be had. 

 TKC launched an Impact Report last week, that states over the last few years it: 

“continues to grow in terms of reach and depth of engagement…”.   

Among countless other innovative Diocese and communities, we demonstrated last year that isolation could be used as a source for more powerful and unceasing connection in faith, uniting our local and wider community with 24-7 Prayer, Community Prayer Trees, Books of Prayers and in-person and virtual lighting of Prayer Candles. 

The Impact Report also demonstrated the effect of TKC on churches this year. Looking solely at the UK, nearly 90% of churches participated, 99% of participants are planning to take part in 2022, and participants of TKC’s survey explained that they prayed for family and friends to participate  

“with an incredible 75% planning follow-up conversations with loved ones – the highest percentage since Thy Kingdom Come began”. 

TKC’s main themes for 2021 included: collaboration and diversity, international reach, focusing on children and youth, resourcing the Church, the involvement of churches and organisation's and expanding ‘beyond 11 days’.  

More resources were translated into various languages this year, plus the introduction of the first BSL-friendly videos and “the Novena and Prayer Journal were available in large print and the Prayer Journal in braille”. 

Partnering with Missional Generation and the Cheeky Pandas, TKC created expansive multi-formatted resources for young children including an 11 part online series, activity packs and an app integrating:  

“Bible-based interactive games and quizzes using augmented reality” (video views on the app reached almost a total of 1/4 million). There was also an abundance of online and offline activity and resource for college students and youth groups, featuring various speakers and reflections around topics such as grief, climate change and masculinity. The resources didn’t just stop at children and young people, as TKC invested heavily in resources for families and adults depending heavily on online access. Videos covered discussions including “the Bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson Wilkin, the first black woman Bishop in the Church of England” and “the Methodist Church of Great Britain’s Phoebe Parkin” which proved to be extremely popular. 

The effect of TKC has ignited the call in many to continue sharing faith in daily conversation, and they feel emboldened and connected, despite isolation, to bring the word of hope with those around them. 

You can read the expansive and detailed report here.

Did you take part in 2020 TKC? If so, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Email Comms@salisbury.anglican.org