Prayer weaves into the daily rhythm of our community life. Mornings we pray in Oppenheimer Park, home to 150 homeless people who enrich our daily prayers. A Prayer and Hospitality team-including members who have experienced homelessness, addiction, and prostitution themselves-commits to regular hours in the prayer room, visitation, and hospitality. A particular focus is on foregrounding women and Indigenous leaders and ministers. We support the growth of prayer, mission and justice in other Vancouver neighbourhoods through “Thy Kingdom Come” events; annual worship and mission gatherings; mission teams; the PrayerCourse; and resourcing multiple prayer rooms around the city.
Founded in 2003 by The Salvation Army 614, the Vancouver DTES 24-7 Prayer Community lives and loves in the Downtown Eastside, where we discover great beauty, love and possibility.
We meet with our friends and neighbours in apartments, slum hotels, homeless shelters, local parks, and churches. We play, work and garden; raise families; and live out a regular pattern of life as we fight for our neighbourhood.
Most importantly, we pray. For the past seventeen years we have held a 24-7 Prayer vigil for our community. We prayed non-stop for three and a half years in a slum hotel room overlooking Main and Hastings, and for weeks at a time in a former Crystal Meth lab above a homeless shelter and women’s refuge.
Our prayer room is now located in the basement of a community house and hosts regular non-stop prayer weeks; bible studies; worship nights; and mission groups.
