{"id":9461,"date":"2025-11-06T15:39:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=9461"},"modified":"2025-11-06T15:39:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:39:58","slug":"construction-begins-on-uks-largest-christian-monument-near-birmingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=9461","title":{"rendered":"Construction begins on UK&#8217;s largest Christian monument near Birmingham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                            <span>An artist&#8217;s rendering of the monument.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Construction is set to begin this week on what is being described as Britain\u2019s largest Christian monument, after the team behind the project met an initial \u00a340 million fundraising target.<\/p>\n<p>The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, to be built near Coleshill between the M6 and M42 motorways outside Birmingham.<\/p>\n<p>It will stand at 51 metres tall &#8211; more than twice the height of the Angel of the North &#8211; in the shape of a M\u00f6bius strip.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The monument will be made of one million bricks, each linked to a story of \u201canswered prayer\u201d that can be accessed via smartphones. Organisers said about 120,000 such stories have already been submitted from 125 countries.<\/p>\n<p>A groundbreaking ceremony is taking place on Wednesday. The monument is expected to open to the public in 2028 when it is hoped it will feature a total of 250,000 prayer stories.<\/p>\n<p><span>The project has received support from more than 20,000 donors worldwide, according to its developers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Richard Gamble, a former Leicester City football club chaplain who founded the initiative, said he first conceived the idea more than two decades ago and spent the past 10 years gathering support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am delighted we are creating a monument that will share a million stories of hope and that people will be able to discover Jesus, who listens to and answers prayer. We have faced many delays and challenges. I believe the timing is perfect,&#8221; he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone at Eternal Wall is deeply grateful to the thousands of people who have backed this project according to their ability \u2013 for every pound donated, every hour volunteered, and every prayer offered to bring us to this point.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the moment to build a landmark of hope\u2026 a lasting testimony to the power of prayer, preserving the Christian heritage in our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The project has been designed by Snug Architects, selected through a Royal Institute of British Architects competition, with VSL appointed as the main contractor.<\/p>\n<p>Land for the monument was donated by IM Properties, owned by Midlands businessman Lord Edmiston, whose company also contributed to the construction costs.<\/p>\n<p>Organisers expect the site to attract about 250,000 visitors annually once completed. The plans include ten acres of landscaped grounds, a car park and, in later stages, a visitor centre and conference facility.<\/p>\n<p>An additional \u00a35.7 million is still needed to complete the site\u2019s infrastructure, the group said.<\/p>\n<p>Lord Edmiston said: \u201cEternal Wall is designed to remind our nation, and people everywhere, of God\u2019s goodness.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a testament to present and future generations of the creator of the universe who has answered numerous prayers over centuries past and still is answering them today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t remember the God who stood by us in our darkest hours as a nation, then we are condemned to have a future absent of his divine guidance and protection. I am therefore proud that my company has had the opportunity of being a significant donor to this project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist&#8217;s rendering of the monument. Construction is set to begin this week on what is being described as Britain\u2019s largest Christian monument, after the team behind the project met an initial \u00a340 million fundraising target. The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, to be built near Coleshill between the M6 and M42 motorways outside Birmingham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1284,1288,72,1283,1286,1287,1285],"class_list":["post-9461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-begins","tag-birmingham","tag-christian","tag-construction","tag-largest","tag-monument","tag-uks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}