A decades-long dream to build Europe’s largest Christian landmark has taken its next steps towards completion.
The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer is the brainchild of Richard Gamble, who previously served as chaplain to Leicester City football club.
He said he first had the vision for the monument in 2004 after he spent that Easter carrying a large wooden cross around Leicestershire and praying, “God, what do you want me to do next?”
It was after this prayer that he saw an image in his mind of a national landmark declaring what Jesus has done.
Planning permission was secured for a site in Coleshill, near Birmingham.
The wall is designed to look like a Möbius strip and will feature a million bricks. Each brick will be digitally linked to the story of an answered prayer. More than 10,000 such prayers have already been submitted by members of the public.
When completed, the monument will be more than twice the size of the Angel of the North and the height of 11 double decker buses. Some 800,000 people are expected to see the monument every year.
Groundwork on the site began last year and it is hoped that the monument will be opened in 2029.
The first section of the wall has now been completed, with 188 concrete segments constructed at a special factory in Portugal.
Gamble said, “I never thought a piece of concrete would make me so emotional. For more than two decades Eternal Wall has existed as a picture in my mind, then on drawings and computer screens. To finally stand in front of it and actually touch it was overwhelming.
“People have laughed at the idea and thought I was crazy. But now it physically exists. It’s real. It’s happening.”
