The Head of the Church of England Reveals: 'I Pray in Tongues Every Day' - CBN News Christian Ellis

Archbishop Justin Welby (AP Photo)

The Head of the Church of England Reveals: 'I Pray in Tongues Every Day'

01-21-2019

CBN News Christian Ellis

The Archbishop of Canterbury, known as the leader of the Church of England, has revealed he prays in tongues every day. 

Archbishop Justin Welby, who has served in the position since November 2012, stated he speaks in tongues during his daily 5am prayer time. The bishop shared the news during an interview with a Christian radio station, Premier. 

"In my own prayer life, and as part of my daily discipline, I pray in tongues every day – not as an occasional thing, but as part of daily prayer," Welby said. "It's not something to make a great song and dance about. Given it's usually extremely early in the morning it's not usually an immensely ecstatic moment."

The bishop also is open to other gifts of the Holy Spirit operating in our modern day world, saying he receives words of knowledge from others and he expects to "hear from God through other people with words of knowledge or prophecies – some of which I am unsure about, others I can sense there being something of the Spirit of God."

Speaking in tongues and words of knowledge are common within more charismatic churches such as Pentecostals. However, Welby believes the gifts are not just for charismatic churches. The Guardian reports he was 19 when he was filled with the Holy Spirit while being an Anglican. 

"It was from that moment and in the days that followed I realised that the Holy Spirit of God had touched me in a very powerful way," he shared with the Anglican Communion News Service in 2015. "I began to speak in tongues and began to learn of the intimacy that Christ brings to us."

Welby is connected to the evangelical wing of the Church of England. He was brought up in Holy Trinity Brompton, an evangelical Anglican church known for speaking in tongues. 

Some denominations believe "speaking in tongues" and "words of knowledge" ended with the early church. Others point to scriptures like Mark 16 where Jesus spoke to the disciples about speaking in tongues right before he ascended into Heaven.

Mark 16:16-17 states, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues." 

Numerous Bible verses correlate "speaking in tongues" and "words of knowledge" with being filled with the Holy Spirit. 

After being filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, Peter shared a passage from Joel 2:28, stating, "'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." 

In the Premier interview, Welby warned of "the danger of putting 'charismatic' as a tribal category within the church", emphasizing "all Christians are filled with the Spirit, so every Christian is a charismatic in that sense".

Why These Closing Churches Are Fueling the Charismatic Movement - TREVOR GRUNDY/RNS CHARISMA NEWS

Hillsong Church London holds four services, attended by 8,000 people, every Sunday at the Dominion Theatre. (Photo courtesy of Hillsong Church London)

Why These Closing Churches Are Fueling the Charismatic Movement

3/29/2016 TREVOR GRUNDY/RNS  charisma news

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Church closings are nothing new in Britain.

In the past six years, 168 Church of England churches have closed, along with 500 Methodist and 100 Roman Catholic churches.

"Christianity in Britain has seen a relentless decline for over 100 years," says Linda Woodhead, a sociologist at Lancaster University.

Visitors to Britain are often shocked when they see the state of some of this nation's once-proud church buildings.

But for every Anglican church that has closed over the past six years, more than three Pentecostal or charismatic churches have taken their place, according to an analysis by The Times of London.

These Pentecostal and charismatic churches are drawing young, black, Asian and mixed-race people.

Pentecostalism is one of the fastest-growing movements in world Christendom, with an estimated 500 million followers.

"A century ago the face of European Christianity could have been labeled as white, but now it is increasingly becoming multicolored," said Israel Olofinjana, a Nigerian-born minister in London told the Times.

While aging Church of England congregations decline, charismatic churches thrive.

Hillsong Church London holds four services, attended by 8,000 people, every Sunday at the Dominion Theatre.

"It feels like God's nightclub, with love songs to Jesus," said one young African after attending an evening service.

Christians from Eastern Europe, especially Poland, where Catholic roots run deep, are among the participants. And their enthusiasm is contagious.

"There's been a seismic shift," said Robert Beckford, a professor of theology at Canterbury Christ Church University. "Christianity in Britain has become much more ethnically diverse as a result of migration from West Africa, Eastern Europe and, to a degree, Latin America."

Elizabeth Oldfield, director at Theos, one of England's leading think tanks, told The Times: "Church structures have to take immigration much more seriously. They're having to listen to people on the ground that are joining the churches in quite large numbers, speaking a different language, perhaps coming from different forms of worship and working to bring change. It is shaking the church up."

The Pentecostal growth is bringing renewed hope to many.

"I am optimistic that we will see this nation come back to God," said Pastor Agu Irukwu of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The group, founded in Nigeria, now has 600 congregations across England. 

© 2016 Religion News Service. All rights reserved.

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'There Are Christians Praying for Israel Inside Iran'

Sunday, July 12, 2015 |  Charles Gardner  ISRAEL TODAY

“I love Israel,” an Iranian delegate told a conference in Manchester aimed at building bridges between Middle Eastern followers of Jesus.

“I may be from Iran, but I love Israel, and there are Christians praying for Israel inside Iran.”

The young man, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, was addressing the UK at the Crossroads event hosted by the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ), a 200-year-old Anglican society.

A refugee forced to flee Iran because he had become a Christian, he spoke of the growing church in his adopted city led by a pastor who gives clear teaching about the special place of Israel in God’s purposes.

With the government and police on his case after converting to Christianity from Islam (which is against the law), he and his wife fled Iran three years ago, hidden in a wooden box on the back of a lorry for a tortuous 72-day journey to the UK. God watched over every detail, even in directing him to an Iranian church when he finally arrived in an English city.

Although financially secure back home with a house and car, he was empty inside and became disillusioned by the harshness of Islam. A troubling home life didn’t help and he became addicted to medicinal drugs until he learnt to play the sitar. For the first time in his life, he was given a hug, and began to share his problems with his tutor who eventually prayed for him with the laying on of hands in Jesus’ name. He was instantly healed, and subsequently became a believer. Now he wakes up every morning thanking Jesus for bringing him out of darkness.

Another ex-Muslim from Iran struggled to comprehend the harshness of the religion and was “switched on” to Christianity after watching a film about Jesus. She initially came to the UK to visit relatives and subsequently married an Englishman. Her faith, however, was put on the backburner until her five-week-old daughter was diagnosed with a tumour. It reminded her that she was a Christian who “knew someone who could sort it out” and her now five-year-old girl recovered so well that she is even swimming already.

A teenage boy, born in Tehran, told the conference how he turned his back on strict Muslim observance when his heart was touched by a church’s worship band.

Music was regarded as sinful among his radical group. But he was sickened by the brutal treatment of soldiers and shocked by the discovery of guns in a mosque. He realised he was being taught to kill and control people. He had been reaching out to God from an early age, but had found no answers until – in the UK – he heard people talking of Jesus. He reluctantly accepted an invitation to church, where his heart was melted by the music. “They told me this wasn’t about religion, but a relationship with God, which was exactly what I had been looking for all those years. I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, and what a difference it made. Now he’s my Lord, my God …my everything!”

An Iranian bishop, meanwhile, spoke of the suffering endured by Christians in a country where he also experienced discrimination as a member of the Jewish community, who were forced to live in designated areas.

Rt Rev Iraj Kalimi Mottahedh came to faith in Jesus through the influence of his uncle and became minister of a church visited by the Queen and the Shah of Iran. But when the revolution struck in 1979, the Anglican Church was the first to be targeted. A pastor was killed and an assassination attempt was made on the bishop at the time, who survived despite being shot through the head six times.

Iraj himself, who took charge when the bishop left, was imprisoned for eight months, unable to leave the country for twelve years and forbidden to accept Muslim converts into his church.

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