May 2012

Edenfest in Australia

Edenfest Gen 1:1 'In the Beginning God Created'

Edenfest is an Ecumenical (Combined Churches) Arts Festival to created to reveal the Beauty of God in the Arts and is designed to engage over 500,000 people to participate across Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

The heart of Edenfest is to bring genuine unity and mission to reveal the Beauty of God in the Arts across youth, families and communities. The success of this vision has only been possible through God's hand of providence and His strategies revealed in prayer. At present, Edenfest has:

• 17 Heads and Leaders of Churches [representing 12 different denominations signed up as members of the Edenfest Board of Reference (BOR)]
• Catholic Bishop Putney is the Chairperson and has engaged the Catholic Churches to sign on as a whole denomination - a world first - which from the last Australian census represents 8M Australians.
• God has also given us favour in Parliament House with the Senator of NSW agreeing to host the launch of Edenfest in our Nations Capital in August.
• Sponsorship traction with a major sponsor 80% secured to fund $3M in-kind and three more Major Business Brands in the process.

Edenfest is a vision which brings the churches, Government and Community together to enhance a stronger Christian presence in our communities. Urgent prayer is needed at present for:

• 2^nd May Meeting - Leaders & Heads of Churches coming together to plan Edenfest Parliamentary Launch for wisdom as they represent us in the Parliament House in August.
• David Jenkins AM - Chairperson for our Board of Directors - has been hit quite hard with illness throughout his family whilst standing solid on this vision, please pray for covering and surgery on 7^th May.
• Edenfest Team - Made up of volunteers and paid workers who have had continual equipment breakdown and major health issues.

Major Prayer Alert

• Christian Unity Blockage - Australia as a country is currently debating "The Marriage Equality Amendment Bill" which if passed will legalise same sex marriages and undermine the unity that is forming within the Churches of Australia and would be the breakdown of Edenfest as this is critical to our vision being based in genuine unity.

Thank you for your partnership in prayer.

Shalom,

The Edenfest Team

November 2011

Commonwealth Prayer Initiative Perth, Australia: 20-30^th October…An Outstanding Success

They came from Britain, the America's, Africa, Asia and from around Australia to attend the recent Commonwealth Christian Assembly in Perth held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). CHOGM national leaders, presidents and prime ministers, represent 1/3 of the world’s population.

The colourful opening night was attended by some 2000 delegates, including Church and Governmental leaders from many nations gathered for CHOGM. The sessions of the Assembly were vibrant, challenging and filled with worship and prayer as well as exciting stories of all that God is doing across the world. Powerful testimonies and wonderful fellowship as the different world cultures blended together in expressing their commitment to the things of God, were features of the Assembly. A feature of the first weekend's activities was the holding of Church Together attended by some 8,000 people from across the Church in Perth and the delegates to the Commonwealth Christian Assembly.

The Converge Week of 24/7 prayer ran from the Monday to the following Sunday of the CHOGM week. Brilliantly organized, the week was a smorgasbord of prayer, worship and powerful presentations by different cultural groups including our own Indigenous brothers and sisters. Over 1000 delegates took part in the week of prayer with many varying styles of prayer and worship from the vibrancy of the African delegates to the quite soaking and contemplative prayer enjoyed by others.

It was exciting to see the venue almost filled each day, sometimes with those attending having to settle for seats in the upper balcony in order to be part of this spiritually powerful event. The Premier of Western Australia, alerted as to what was happening by colleagues who attended the opening night, was briefed each day on what was happening in the prayer room and some delegates from CHOGM itself found time to attend and join in the prayers and presentations.

Not for many years has Australia seen so many people gather in the one place for such a prolonged period of corporate prayer, the impact of which was clearly seen in the CHOGM meetings themselves and on the streets of the city…

Not only was the city of Perth blessed but so to was the nation of Australia as we played host to this significant international event.

Source: Australian Prayer Network