Five ways to pray for your community
Claire Walford
For Anti-Slavery Day 2026, we are encouraging people to WALK-SEE-PRAY.
Here are a few creative ideas for how you could structure your prayer walks.
As you walk, you could:
- Pray for the people you see, the businesses and homes you walk past and the community organisations that are active in the area.
2. Use local landmarks as a trigger to pray for different types of people.
- When you see a lamppost, pray for current victims of modern slavery - that they would be noticed and rescued
- When you walk past a park or green space, pray for survivors of modern slavery – that they would be restored and would flourish again
- When you see a large fence or railing, pray for perpetrators - that they would repent and be exposed, that we would see justice
- When you see a civic building, pray for those in power at local and national levels – that they would use their authority and position to create laws that protect the vulnerable
- When you see a school, library or community building, pray for local volunteers in a community project you know about
- When you see a church, pray for those who go there regularly that they would grow in awareness of modern slavery and passion to reach out to the vulnerable
- When a car passes, pray for workers in hand car wash businesses to be treated fairly and for the Safe Car Wash App to help identify and rescue victims
- When you reach home, pray for yourself – for your response.
3. Pray in circles – from yourself outwards.
This is a good one for using a map at home or with a group, on a device or on paper to zoom in and out or draw circles for praying for larger and larger categories!
- Find your home/ central point and pray for your own alertness to the issue, attention to God’s leading and personal response to the world around you.
- Draw a loop around your neighbourhood or residential area - pray for safety, for businesses to flourish and for wisdom to notice your neighbours and their needs
- Include your church and key civic features and pray for your wider community, including any organisations or projects in the area and your local public services
- Pray for your diocese or county, including the work of The Clewer Initiative in churches across your region
- Pray for national change, including survivors in recovery, charities supporting them, and how to lobby policymakers for more protective measures in law.
- Pray for the world, including modern slavery overseas, global issues like the internet, climate change and conflict which are creating vulnerability and exacerbating exploitation, and the way we are connected through the things we buy from global supply chains to poor labour practices.
4. Use the Bible to inspire your prayers!
- Find a Psalm to pray through each time you walk. You could even try to memorise it! For example, Psalm 10 (God sees hidden suffering); Psalm 34 (God is close to the broken-hearted) or Psalm 72 (God rescues the oppressed).
- Memorise and pray through some promises from the Bible or visions of the future where justice prevails such as Isaiah 58:6–12; Psalm 9:7–10; Psalm 146:7–9; Isaiah 11:1–9; Isaiah 65:17–25 and Revelation 21:1–5.
5. Use the Lord’s Prayer to guide your prayers. There are five sections. In advance, work out your route and stop at five key places to pray and meditate on one part of the Lord’s Prayer. Pray whichever section you are on for the people you see, the homes you walk past and the community buildings you pass.
There are so many ways to pray – why don’t you try to incorporate one of these ideas as you WALK-SEE-PRAY in October!
Of course, if during our walks, we see anything that causes concern, please call local police on 101, the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
