An enormous Christian monument, more than twice the size of the Angel of the North, is to be built on the outskirts of Birmingham, fulfilling a vision its instigator says came from God.
The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer will be constructed using a million bricks, each representing a prayer from a member of the public and its outcome. The aim is to “encourage and inspire people going through the storms of life”, said Richard Gamble, the project’s chief executive and a former chaplain of Leicester City football club.
The £9.3m project will be built on a 10-acre greenbelt site near Coleshill on the outskirts of Birmingham donated by Lord Edmiston, a billionaire businessman, Conservative party donor and evangelical Christian. North Warwickshire borough council’s planning committee unanimously endorsed the scheme.
The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer will be 51 metres high, dwarfing the 20-metre height of Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North in Gateshead. The wall, which is in the shape of a loop known as a Möbius strip, was designed by Snug Architects after a competition run by the Royal Institute of British Architects. It will be visible up to six miles away and is expected to be seen from half a million vehicles on the nearby M6 and M42 each week.
Visitors will be able to use an app to access the stories of a million people who say their prayers were answered. The project’s backers expect it to attract 300,000 visitors each year. The site will hold a visitors’ centre, cafe and bookshop.
Gamble said: “We’re trying to make hope visible and provoke a conversation about prayer. Everyone goes through storms in life, and hope is one of the greatest antidotes to anxiety and fear.”
Richard Gamble: ‘We’re trying to provoke a conversation about prayer.’
“We say we’re a secular nation, but most Christian organisations reported a massive spike [in interest] during lockdown and people Googling about prayer. Even though we operate as a secular nation, many of us turn to prayer in times of crisis.”
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