Dennis Gruending of Pulpit and Politics, in 2008, explored the charismatic and reconstructionist religious youth organization The Cry, which draws together Canadian youth through prayer rallies in Ottawa and other major centres. The Cry is linked to 4 My Canada, the National House of Prayer, Christian Zionist groups like the Watchmen for the Nations, and a similar American group, The Call, which emerged from the men’s organization Promise Keepers in the late 1990s.

Its director, Faytene Kriskow, explains that “the sexual revolution, the new age movement, secular humanism . . . and the women’s movement… have sunk their ideological claws into a generation and have produced a mass of social wreckage and a trail of shattered lives.” However, a “tribe of believing radicals,” combined with a sympathetic government, just might be enough to “influence every realm of society.”

Says Gruending:

The Ottawa event promises to be a combination of prayer rally and fast, a march, a concert and an action where participants tape shut their mouths in symbolic solidarity with foetuses. There will be “abandon worship and fervent prayer”– which is a descriptor for charismatic and emotional worship. There will be a prayer for peace “with a leader from Israel” and special visits from as yet unidentified members of Parliament. The Cry says that the Ottawa event and those in other centres will cost $300,000 and asks for donations, which it says are tax receiptable. That means that either The Cry, or another organization assisting in the event is registered as a charitable organization.

The Cry was inspired by an American youth initiative named The Call, which describes itself as yet another “divinely initiated” prayer group. The Call grew out of large rally in Washington, D.C. in 1997 organized by the Promise Keepers, a Christian right men’s group. A man named Lou Engle claims that following that gathering he had “a God-given dream” to organize a corresponding youth movement. Conservative Christian youth rallied in Washington D.C. in September 2000 and the movement spread from there, including to Canada.

More The Cry rallies are planned for this year, with a major event in Vancouver in August, which will “prepare the way, in prayer, for the 2010 Olympics.”

Have you written about The Cry, or participated in its events? Drop us a line and let us know.

TheCry Vancouver 2009: Rick Hiebert  The Cry…of the mislead?
Canadian Christianity Lloyd Mackey: Christians debate significance of TheCry (Vancouver 2009)