Sculpture will ‘shout to future generations’ about prayer

A massive new Christian monument under construction near Birmingham is a living declaration that Jesus is alive today, the man behind it says.

After reaching its initial £40 million fundraising target, the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer broke ground on its Coleshill site in November, kicking off a multi-year process which should see the structure completed in 2028.

“This is a day I have prayed for, dreamed of and worked towards for 21 years,” said former Leicester City Football Club chaplain Richard Gamble at the ground-breaking ceremony. Gamble, the main figure behind the project, said he received a vision from God to build the landmark more than 20 years ago.

“The Eternal Wall will be a living monument declaring that Jesus is alive and still answering prayer today,” he said. “It will tell the story of a God who has shaped our nation – the God who stood with us in war, in hardship and in revival – and who continues to move in the lives of ordinary people.

“Long after we are gone, the Eternal Wall will remain as a beacon of hope. It will shout to future generations that Jesus answers prayer.”

At 51 metres tall, the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer will become the largest Christian monument in the UK. The Möbius strip design will be formed by 1 million bricks, each representing an answered prayer which visitors to the monument will be able to scan with their smartphone to reveal. So far, 120,000 prayers from 125 countries have been submitted or pledged with a target of 250,000 by the monument’s opening to the public.

“The aim of the Eternal Wall is to signpost to Jesus, and to animate Revelation 12v11: ‘They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,’” Eternal Wall CEO Ian Bullock said. “It is about the power of stories, ordinary people who have known answers to prayer from an all powerful, creator God. Donors recognise the vision as being so much more than a piece of art, but a place where visitors can experience the presence of God, and for some, the start of their journey into saving faith.”

Twenty thousand donors worldwide have supported the multi-million pound project to date, and another £5.7 million is needed to build a visitor centre, car park, and landscaped grounds on the site.

Though the landmark has a significant price tag, Bullock describes it as a 100-plus year legacy project. “This is about preserving the nation’s Christian heritage,” he said. “Prayers from every century AD will feature and remind us what God has done. It is widely acknowledged that welfare at a societal level would be so much poorer without the church, and the monument has the potential to highlight this through individual answered prayers.”

The site for the monument as well as a sizable donation towards building costs was provided by Lord Robert Edmiston’s company IM Group. The Eternal Wall is expected to attract around 250,000 visitors a year after its completion.

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