OVER 1,500 churches – more than double the number in 2023, joined in the inter-denominational evangelistic initiative called Shine Your Light this Christmas season – taking carol services and other festive events onto the streets and shopping centres.

Shine Your Light (SYL) organisers had hoped to increase last year’s total of 738 participating churches to 1,000, but with registrations still coming in, as of today (31st December) 1,711 churches took part – many working for the first time with other local churches to take the Christmas message outside church walls, and into their community.

With their original goal of over 1-million people hearing the gospel smashed, stories are flooding in of churches from different denominations working together for the first time.

In Blairgowrie, Perthshire in Scotland, the Episcopal Church worked for the first time in the history of both churches with the Assemblies of God Church. Morag who coordinated this event said: “For the first time in living memory, 85 Christians from seven churches gathered in The Wellmeadow – an open space in the centre of the town – to sing carols and follow the story of the nativity through seven Bible readings. Members of the public joined in, and gifts of Bible texts in rafia-bound mini-scrolls were eagerly accepted, along with free sweets. We returned to the church hall for hot drinks, mince pies, and fellowship.

“The event was a powerful public statement of witness and brought together churches who do not regularly worship together – they included: the Church of Scotland; Catholic; Episcopal; Brethren; and Life Plus. Together, we proclaimed Christ as the focus of Christmas”

In Wales, in Llangefni town centre, according to Jacqueline, “something extraordinary happened.  The Welsh and English congregations got together from four of the different churches to sing carols, pray for the community and share the good news from the Shine Your Light carol booklet. This unity is not usual here!

“The Town Council even allowed us to have power from the town clock – which powers all our town Christmas lights – and as the clock struck the first stroke of ‘11’, the power came into our sound system. There was a Christmas market on the same day. Many people stopped and joined in with a carol or two and listened to the prayers and readings as they passed by.  As we sang ‘Silent Night’ a holy hush fell on the town centre, and the tangible presence of God was there. It was precious.”

Across England, over 1,000 Shine Your Light events took place, including in workplaces, prisons as well as care homes.

Amy, who attended a Shine Your Light in the Midlands reported: “There was a group of about 50 Christians from five local churches. It was encouraging as we haven’t worked together in outreach for quite a while. We sang, shared testimonies, read from the Bible, and prayed blessing over our community. Some people stopped and joined in. We were able to give out a number of programmes, to which we’d added a map and info about the churches taking part.”

And at Bournemouth’s large Castlepoint Shopping Centre, Gabriel explained: “There were several choirs arranged to sing carols throughout the day, and also 700 bags of ‘Hope and Joy’ to be handed out to shoppers.

“Just before the event, the shopping centre Authority raised concerns that the bag contents might be too ‘religious’ – a box of chocolates, a Christmas card including a Bible verse, a list of Bournemouth Christmas Church Services, and a booklet of Testimonies of people whose lives had been changed by Jesus.  So, we prayed, and they agreed that we could go ahead – without taking anything out of the bags!

“The event was originally planned for the week before but because of the storm forecast, the organisers thought it might have to be cancelled because of the stage needed for the choirs.  So, it was postponed till December 14, Shine Your Light weekend. This meant a lot of late organisational changes because not all the people in the choirs were available on the revised date. An estimate that about 50 people were involved in running the event is conservative!

“On the day, the Lord blessed us with good weather, and all 700 bags were handed out by about 1 pm – though the event was scheduled to finish at 4 pm. There were many meaningful conversations with shoppers, and some people were prayed for during the day.  The following Monday, we received news that the shopping centre Authority would like us to do two Saturdays next December, not two!”

This year’s unity was even recognised by Buckingham Palace.  King Charles sent a letter of encouragement to the organisers expressing his pleasure in hearing about churches from different denominations coming together over Christmas.

Whilst the focus of the four-nation evangelistic campaign was aimed at the weekend of 13-15 December, churches registered to use free evangelistic resources to help them spread the Christian message at any time in December.  These included an 8-minute evangelistic talk by Dr Amy Orr-Ewing (adapted for local context), a professionally designed and printed Carol sheet for events, music backing tracks to accompany the carols, or a music score for each carol, and resources for churches to follow up contacts made at events.

Pastor Jonathan Oloyede, Convenor of the National Day of Prayer & Worship said:

“The Bible says ‘How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! In this year’s Shine Your Light, we’ve seen more than double the number of participating churches, and we’re hearing more and more stories of churches working together for the very first time in unity to reach their local communities. Shine Your Light has united believers on the essential truths of the gospel, though there will always be some aspects of church life and beliefs we may differ on.

“There’s something very powerful when God’s people come together to pray and to witness to their local community.  From it friendships are built, barriers are broken down, believers continue to gather for joint events, and over time, the Body of Christ is built up and together, we seek to meet the needs of our local area. 

“We’re thrilled that this year, across all four nations of the UK, churches have joined together from over 50 denominations.  In January, we look forward to revealing exciting plans for Shine Your Light in December 2025.  We’ll also make available the number of churches by denomination/affiliation to encourage even more to take part. Our deep thanks go to every church that took part this year, and to our Partner organisations who made this year’s initiative possible. Above all we give God the glory and pray that the seeds planted this Christmas through the hundreds of events will take fruit in people’s lives over the coming months and years.”

• For further information, resources, and event ideas, visit www.shineyourlight.org.uk