Location: 320 Brown Street, Hartford, CT.

The final Fifth Friday for 2009 is October 30. The Fifth Friday meetings are part of a New England-wide prayer movement in which the New England Alliance promotes quarterly prayer meetings every fifth Friday (which is four times a year). Churches and prayer ministries across New England are praying in unity for the hand of God to move in our region. (For more information on Fifth Fridays, visit www.newenglandalliance.us).

The following churches are participating in Fifth Friday prayer events this week:

• 9-11 AM: Gospel Light Fellowship, 132 Wauregan Road, Danielson CT
• 6-7 PM: Good News Christian Center, 46 John Street, Wallingford CT
• 7-11 PM: St. Paul’s Darien, 471 Mansfield, Avenue, Darien CT
• 9-11 AM: Calvary Christian Center, 265 West Main Street, New Britain CT
• 6 PM – 12 AM: Connecticut House of Prayer, 320 Brown Street, Hartford CT
• 7-8:30 PM: United Kingdom Church, 1589 Stratford Avenue, Bridgeport CT
• 9-11 AM: United Baptist Church, 38 Pompey Hollow Rd (Rte 44), Ashford CT
• 7:30-9 PM: Calvary Presbyterian Church, 1518 King Street, Enfield CT
• Monroe House of Prayer, Easton CT (Contact Denise at denisedm at msn.com for location & time)
• Freedom Fellowship, Bristol CT (Call Pastor Tim Shone at 860-944-0664 for location & time)
• 7-11 PM: Covenant Presbyterian Church, Simsbury CT
• 6-7 PM: Living Word Fellowship, 512 Beach Pond Road, Voluntown CT

Source: Connecticut House of Prayer. Image by Doug Kerr under Creative Commons license.

There is now a regular Thursday morning Share and Prayer at the Norwalk YMCA, 370 West Avenue in Norwalk, CT. All are invited to meet each Thursday morning for a time of sharing and prayer. There will be fellowship and refreshments from 7:00 – 7:30 am, followed by scriptural reflection, sharing and prayer from 7:30-8:30 am.

Meetings are held in the Norwalk YMCA Conference Center, which is on the first floor of the grey (middle) building of the north (Maple Ave) Parking lot. Please invite a friend!

For more information, contact Bill Tetreault at (203) 866-4425 x339.

Last year, Montville Christian leaderTom Miyashiro organized a breakfast with the founder of XXXChurch, an online, anti-pornography ministry that addresses problems nationwide.

More than 160 men attended the Groton church event, but Miyashiro said although it was vital to raise the topic, he isn’t convinced that many people walked away from their sex problems.

“In the last two months, I’ve had at least five people say they have been absolutely devastated by pornography,” said Miyashiro, executive director of Faith 2 Faith Ministries International in Montville.

Read the rest – and pray for the church here in Connecticut and beyond as people grapple with this destroyer of homes.

It is critical that the Church in America understands the times and what needs to be done now. The natural things speak of the invisible. Natural happenings on the earth are revealing something that is going on in the spiritual realm. There is a great spiritual conflict with a rising tide of Islamic boldness being manifested. Several happenings are converging this week.

First of all, our President has recently proclaimed, honored, encouraged the Muslim holy days of prayer and fasting called Ramadan. He was very silent on the National Day of Prayer, but very vocal on the support of Ramadan. Interestingly, at the same time, a major Christian leader of the Emergent Church called for forty days of fasting and prayer in the same Ramadan period with the goal that the Church will better understand our Muslim friends. We are all for understanding, but we must have spiritual discernment as to the spiritual dark powers that are being invoked into our nation.

Read the rest here.

Investors’ Business Daily sounds an alarm about threats we face in a world still dangerous:

‘Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?” Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a “World Without Zionism” conference in Tehran in 2005. “But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved.”

He added that Iran had a strategic “war preparation plan” for what it called “the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization.”

….The threat is called electromagnetic pulse. Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., calls it the one way we could lose the war on terror. As he notes, a single nuclear warhead, detonated at the right altitude, would interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, producing an electromagnetic pulse radiating to the surface at the speed of light.

Nobody is harmed or killed immediately by the blast. But life in the U.S., the world’s only superpower and largest economy, comes to a screeching halt as a country dependent on 21st-century technology instantaneously regresses almost a century in time.

Millions could die as hospital systems shut down and as rail and air traffic controls collapse. Farmers would be unable to harvest crops, and distributors couldn’t get goods to market. Energy production would cease. Computers and PCs would become large paperweights. Telephones, even cell phones, wouldn’t work.

Let’s continue to pray against terrorism and mischief-making by rogue states around the world.

From Connecticut House of Prayer: This year, on September 11th, there will be noontime prayer meetings at every county courthouse in America. We will pray for revival in our country. Our goal is to have 100% coverage, as we had at last year’s “Cry Out America.”  Contact Audrey McIntyre at connecticuthouseofprayer at yahoo.com or call (860) 904-7358 if you’d like to participate.

Grace Farms in New Canaan

Grace Community Church in New Canaan will be conducting a week of 24-7 Prayer at Grace Farms in a newly developed, interactive prayer room specifically built for this week. From June 21st to June 28th the church will set out to pray for 24 hours around the clock for the week. Participants are encouraged to sign up for hour long time slots. Sign ups can be done at Grace Church on June 14th or 21st or at the Kick-Off Gathering.

The Kick-Off Gathering will be held in the stables at Grace Farms (365 Lukes Wood Rd., New Canaan) from 6:00-8:00 on June 21st. The time will be filled with music, teaching, videos and prayer. On June 28th, we will hold a Kick-Out Gathering to share testimonies and join together to bring the week to a close. Anyone is welcome to join us. There will also be prayer walks on Wed. morning, the 24th at 10:00am and Wed. evening at 7:00pm. For details or questions, please contact Jake Kircher at 978-239-6756 or jake @ gracecommunity.info.

Joining the House, the Connecticut State Senate apologized for slavery on Wednesday.  The following is a final copy of the Joint Resolution, as near as I can determine:

RESOLUTION EXPRESSING THE PROFOUND REGRET OF THE CONNECTICUT GENERAL ASSEMBLY FOR THE HISTORY OF WRONGS INFLICTED UPON BLACK CITIZENS BY MEANS OF SLAVERY, EXPLOITATION AND LEGALIZED RACIAL SEGREGATION, AND CALLING ON ALL CITIZENS TO TAKE PART IN ACTS OF RACIAL RECONCILIATION.

Resolved by this Assembly:

WHEREAS, involuntary servitude, as practiced within the borders of Connecticut in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries violated the precept that all persons are created equal and denied thousands of people liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the ability to benefit from their own work, and, in many cases, life itself; and

WHEREAS, in 1723, the Connecticut colony passed an act to prevent the “Disorder of Negro and Indian Servants and Slaves in the Night Season” that established a nine o’clock p.m. curfew, the violation of which was punishable with a whipping for the servant and a fine for the master; and

WHEREAS, Connecticut’s wealth increased as its merchants and businessmen participated in the Triangle Trade which carried slaves, cash crops and manufactured goods between West Africa, the Caribbean and America and such merchants and businessmen profited from supplying food and livestock to slaves in the West Indies who labored on sugar cane plantations; and

WHEREAS, by the mid 1770′s there were approximately five thousand one hundred slaves in the Connecticut colony, comprising three per cent of the population, and slave ownership was not limited to the wealthy; and

WHEREAS, the practice of slavery was embedded in constitutional provisions and laws enacted by predecessors to this General Assembly and other civil authorities of Connecticut; and

WHEREAS, emancipation bills were rejected by the Connecticut Legislature in 1777, 1779 and 1780; and

WHEREAS, the Connecticut Legislature did enact the Nonimportation Act of 1774, the 1784 Gradual Abolition Act and the 1788 Act to Prevent the Slave Trade; and

WHEREAS, in 1818 Connecticut’s new constitution specifically denied the right of the African American population to vote; and

WHEREAS, Connecticut played a significant role in abolition efforts which culminated in the outlawing of slavery in 1848; and

WHEREAS, a significant number of nations, states and corporations have come forward to offer apologies for the roles they played in promoting or supporting slavery.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Connecticut General Assembly issues its apology for the practices of slavery in Connecticut and expresses its profound contrition for the official acts that sanctioned and perpetuated the denial of basic human rights and dignity to fellow humans and vows to work for the elimination of residual structures of racism that continue to exist in our state; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the General Assembly urges schools, colleges, universities, religious and civic institutions, businesses and professional associations to do all within their respective powers to acknowledge the transgressions of Connecticut’s journey from a colony to a leading state in the abolition efforts and to learn the lessons of history in order to avoid repeating mistakes of the past and to promote racial equality and reconciliation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the General Assembly calls on all Connecticut residents to recommit their state, their communities and themselves to the proclamation of their nation’s Declaration of Independence that “all persons are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights” and to work daily to treat all persons with abiding respect for their humanity and to eliminate racial prejudices, injustices and discrimination from our society.

We applaud this and pray that God will see and have mercy on us as a people.

Four times a year, believers from all over New England unite in prayer at local Fifth Friday gatherings.  Here’s an updated list of the Connecticut churches which are participating in this New England-wide prayer meeting.  All meetings are on May 29 except as noted.

Ashford: United Baptist Church, 38 Pompey Hollow Road (Rte 44) (9:00 – 11:00 am)

Bridgeport: United Kingdom Church 1589 Stratford Avenue (7:00-8:30 pm)

Bristol: Freedom Fellowship (Time TBA)  Contact bound4lifect at yahoo.com for more information

Danielson: Gospel Light Fellowship, 132 Wauregan Road (10:00 am – 12:00 pm)

Darien: St. Paul’s Darien, 471 Mansfield Avenue (7:00 -11:00 pm)

Easton: Monroe House of Prayer, Easton (Time TBA).  Contact Denise Del Monte at denisedm at msn.com for directions.

Enfield: Calvary Presbyterian Church, 1518 King Street, Enfield (7:30-9:00 pm)

Groton: Bishop Seabury Church, 256 North Road (6:30 pm)

Hartford: Connecticut House of Prayer, 320 Brown Street (7pm-7pm May 29 & 30 ONLY: 24 hour prayer watch)

New Britain: Calvary Christian Center, 265 West Main Street (9:00 am – 12:00 pm)

Simsbury: Covenant Presbyterian Church (“The Barn”), 124 Old Farms Road (7:00 -11:00 pm)

Voluntown: Living Word Fellowship, 512 Beach Pond Road (6:30 – 7:30 am MAY 30)

Wallingford: Good News Christian Fellowship, 46 John Street (6:00 – 7:00 pm)

For more information, contact Connecticut House of Prayer at (860) 904-7358 or email connecticuthouseofprayer at yahoo.com.

(Information via CHOP)