Growth of the Kingdom

The Church’s missionary work

Another way, which is included in this prayer “Thy Kingdom come”, is by bringing more people to be members of the Church, in this country and all over the world.  As Jesus said to his Apostles before his Ascension, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them…and teaching them…” (NRSV, Matthew 28:19,20); “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (NRSV, Mark 16:15).

So “Thy Kingdom come” is also a prayer for the missionary work of the Church at home and overseas.  We can all help God’s Kingdom to come in our own country by talking with people about our Christian Faith and by encouraging them to come to church with us so that they can find out more for themselves.

It is also very important that we support the missionary work of the Church overseas.  We have the Faith today only because missionaries long ago loved Jesus so much that they wanted the people of this land to belong to him and his Church.  After the Roman soldiers were withdrawn from Britain in the year 401 AD, the country was overrun by wild barbarians, the Angles and the Saxons, and some 180 years later the Christian Faith was holding out only in the far corners.  You may have heard how Gregory the Great, the Bishop of Rome, saw some Northumbrian boys being sold there in the slave market.  Seeing their fair hair and blue eyes, he asked who they were.  “Angles”, was the answer.  “Not Angles”, said St Gregory, “but angels”.  And he made up his mind then and there that the Christian Faith must be brought to the people to whom these boys belonged.