A community of prayer for the heart of East London.
The House of Prayer for East London (HOP East for short) is a community of Christians living out a call to pray.
We shape our lives around four simple practices that are the beginning of a rule of life with Jesus, for London.
We feel the call to make space to pray and cultivate a life where intimacy and intercession with Jesus intersect. Where there is singing and silence, resting and working, fasting and feasting, contemplation and action.
We are an expression of the church and a resource to the churches, contending for the heart of the East End in prayer.
Why a feather?
In Genesis 1:2 we read ‘darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.’ Next thing God speaks… ‘Light!’.
(This one of our favourite prayers, ‘Let there be light!’)
The word ‘hovering’ can also mean ‘brooding’. Like a bird on a nest, incubating the new life about to break forth.
This is what the feather symbolises to us, a waiting on the Holy Spirit and a Godly anticipation of the light just around the corner. This is our posture of prayer - hope in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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PRACTICE
WITH US
The first prayer practice we have is to pray the Lord’s Prayer at midday, everyday. Set an alarm, get praying and know that you are not alone. Get in touch to find out about our other three.
MEET
WITH US
We gather together every Wednesday in term-time to worship and pray together. This is our living room praise and intercession session. 7.30-9pm and you are welcome.
STAY
WITH US
We know there are people called to pray for London both near and far. If you want to come and stay, take a prayer walk in the footsteps of the Booths, or pray in the prayer room for hours at night. We have a room. We also have resident rooms. Get in touch to find out more.
Our Story
We are Anglican rooted and ecumenically called, serving as part of the church in East London and, like the monastic orders of old, calling the church back into her deep foundations of prayer.
We are part of the Tower Hamlets Deanery and Mission Project.
We gather at St Faith’s House where locals, youngsters, priests, nuns and many more have prayed for over 100 years.
The house is literally home to a few of the community and its leaders. Here we host worship, prayer and discipleship gatherings. But, members of the House of Prayer are also scattered, living out the call to pray and practicing the practices all over East London.
These all form parts of our story; the people of the East End, the house and the churches, current mission and ancient monks, gathered and scattered community. Theses are strands by which we are being woven together. One more personal strand is that of Mark and Carrie Bishop who lead the HOP East.
Mark and Carrie both had a growing sense of God calling them to ‘learn to pray’ for a number of years. They have lived and served in London for over 20 years but it is in the last 6 years that they have felt a specific call to prayer. It started with prayer walking which took them to the City of London and then to the East End. There were specific prayer walks - the boundary of the city, the River, the Mile End Road but even the school run became a prayer walk, the walk to the shop, the walk to work.
In 2019 Mark became the Associate Vicar at St Paul’s Shadwell and in 2021 he and Carrie started joining with people from other churches across the borough of Tower Hamlets to prayer walk. Since then we have, as churches together in Tower Hamlets, prayer walked every parish, every old metropolitan borough, at least 70% the streets and the whole of the boundary of the borough, twice.
Now, let’s be clear, the achievement here is not the miles walked, or even, dare I say it, the prayers prayed right at the grass roots of East London. The achievement is obediently following Jesus on the adventure of prayer with the expectation that this changes things, opens up peoples availability to the good news (prayer walking is the second practice btw).
Out of this came a moment early in 2023 where we asked, what would it look like for a new community, gathered around the call to pray, look like? A new monastic community? A group of everyday Christians contending even more for the heart of East London in prayer?
And so, with permission from the Bishop of Stepney in 2023, Mark & Carrie and their two children were able to move in and begin to live out the vision.
Do you feel a call to pray for East London?
Get in touch to find out more. Whether it’s about resident spaces, Wednesday night worship, prayer room shifts or Prayer B&B, we’d love to chat.
Images & artwork by @markbishopbrave apart from the header which is the awesome work of Ben Davies - thanks Ben!