12,000 Christians including young and old, men and women, gathered in the heart of Ireland's capital, Dublin, for the inaugural "March for Jesus" event on October 26.
Organized by All Nations Church and Betania Church, both based in the city, the march received support from various churches in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The participants united to celebrate and affirm the Christian identity that has been part of Ireland's heritage since the arrival of missionary St. Patrick in the fifth century AD, according to the event organizers
The event began at the Garden of Remembrance, where the participants sang hymns and prayed as they marched through the city streets, holding wooden crosses and banners with messages like “March for Jesus,” “Jesus is the Way,” “Jesus is Lord,” “Jesus is King,” “Jesus can change your life,” “Jesus loves Dublin” and “Jesus loves Ireland.”
The event saw participation from several other church and ministry leaders, both male and female, who delivered speeches and prayers.
Andy Campbell from the charity Healing the Land addressed the assembly, declaring, “We lift that name, that Jesus is King over Ireland and God, we thank you today you are still King over Ireland.” Pastor John Ahern from All Nations Church ignited the crowd’s enthusiasm by asking, “How many of you believe that Jesus is alive?” which was met with raucous cheers.
Ahern read aloud from Jeremiah 1:10, conveying a message against political and societal decisions on the island that run contrary to Gospel values. He said, “I want to pray for the family, I want to pray for our children. I think that it’s significant that in the providence of God, that God ordained that we would be here on this day. It was arranged months ago but here God says before you were born I knew you.”
Emphasizing the event's purpose, Ahern continued, “We are here to bless our city, we are here to bless this island both north and south. But we’re not just here to bless because God will not and cannot bless everything.”
He added, “God will not bless the shedding of innocent blood. God will not bless euthanasia. God will not bless the sexualization of children. God will not bless the erasure of women. And God will not bless churches that are so cowardly they refuse to call evil exactly what it is.”
