A FRAMEWORK FOR 24/7 DAVIDIC INTERCESSORY WORSHIP

Church Age

Alexander Akimites

• A 5th century monk in Constantinople (Orthodox Eastern church)

• Established his monastery around 430 AD• Akoimetoi means “sleepless ones”. • David said that he meditated on the law ‘day

and night’ and this became a capstone verse to the Akoimetoi.

• Alexander divided the monks into choirs and they rotated throughout the 24 hour period.

Agaune – Roman Name

• In 515 AD Sigismund established a monastery at Saint-Maurice 64 kilometers due East of Geneva (Roman Western Church)

• A key feature of its liturgy was “laus perennis” – perpetual praise (prayer)

• The monks divided up into companies called “turmae” and one company would replace another company throughout the day and night

Commentary

• “No contemporary sixth-century source dealing with Agaune speaks of its laus perennis; those words were simply never used… instead of its psalmody, which lasted through both night and day: it was “assiduous psalmody” or “hymns of psalmody day and night” or “divine songs by day and night” or “psalmody by turmae both night and day,” and so on” (Rosenweir 2001, 41)

Bangor Ireland• According to tradition, St Patrick came upon a

certain valley and it was reported that he and his companions “beheld the valley filled with a heavenly light and with a multitude of the host of heaven they heard, as chanted forth from the voice of angels, the psalmody of the celestial choir”

• Early 5th century AD

Comgall• Comgall established a monastery there in 558

AD. At its height, 3000 monks lived there• They were broken into three companies. Each

took an 8 hour shift to pursue “laus perennis” • Their antiphonal style of praise and

intercession lasted almost 300 years when the monastery was eventually destroyed by invading Vikings in 824 AD

Bernard of Clairvaux – 12th AD• “A place it was, truly sacred, the nursery of

saints who brought forth fruit most abundantly to the Glory of God, insomuch that one of the sons of that holy congregation, Molua by name, is alone reputed to have been the founder of a hundred monasteries... In short, so widely had its branches extended … … Nor was it only into the countries I have mentioned but even into distant lands that crowds of saints, like an inundation, poured “

Count Zinzendorf’s Moravians • Moravians began a prayer movement in 1727

AD that prevailed in prayer for 100 years• “On 5 August the Count spent the whole night

in prayer … where great emotion prevailed”• “On 26 August, twenty four men and twenty

four women covenanted together to continue praying in intervals of one hour each, day and night, each hour allocated by lots to different people”

Today• In an April 2011 Google search, there were

17.5 million hits for the combined use of “corporate and prayer”;

• 151,000 were for the exact phrase “corporate prayer”.

• There were also 95 new arrivals within 24 hours of the initial search!

24-7 Prayer• The site “24-7 Prayer” operates out of London

England. • 24-7 Prayer is an international,

interdenominational movement of prayer, mission and justice that began with a single, student-led prayer vigil in Chichester, England in 1999

• It has spread, by word-of-mouth, into 100+ nations

Summary – broad strokes• “sleepless ones” in the 5th century Orthodox

church• 6th century “perpetual praise” in the Roman

Catholic Church• 3,000 monks in 8th century Bangor Ireland for

300 years• 18th century Protestant Moravians 100 years• 21st century 24/7 prayer