‘It’s not “religious” its real’ – The open air Prayer Station changing Crewe’s estates

Sep 8, 2021 by Andrew Symes

By Tony Cummings, Premier Christianity:

I walk along Oxford Street. It seems deserted and though there are plenty of parked cars there are none moving down the road and no crowds of shoppers. In fact, there are no shops. For this is Oxford Street, Crewe, not London, on what the locals call the “Derby Docks” housing estate built in the 50s.

It may be only 158 miles from the capital’s shopping epicentre but economically this Oxford Street is a million miles away.

Around 70 per cent of the people who live on this estate are on benefits and it, and Crewe’s other housing estate, Brookhouse, has more than its share of need and deprivation. But as I approach the corner of Oxford Street I hear voices ringing out through the rain, “Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see.”

There by the waste bins sit nine people on folding chairs, joyfully singing.

The Love Crewe Prayer Station has two meetings every Thursday, one at Smallbrook Walk, Brookhouse Estate, at 10am and one at Oxford Street at 11am. They began in June 2020, and these delightfully informal gatherings have steadily grown. They consist of prayer, Bible reading, worship and a 10-15 minute message.

Such is the determination to exercise the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:4-5) that several of the core Prayer Station team are happy at a moment’s notice to bring a word of testimony. During the meetings two or three team members deliver food parcels (made up by arrangement with a local church food bank), pass out tracts and occasionally Bibles and bottles of water.

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