Scripture Union has harnessed the power of Facebook, the popular online social networking website, to mobilise Christians to pray.

PrayLive is an interactive application allowing members to choose their own focus for prayer, share prayer with friends, and see a constantly updated 'prayer cloud' of issues people are praying about.

Within 24 hours of being uploaded, PrayLive was being used as a focus for prayer for the family of Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old Liverpool boy shot dead last week while playing with his friends.

This week, five days after going live and before it had been officially listed by Facebook, PrayLive had been passed from friend to friend to more than 300 Facebook members. This is expected to rise sharply once it becomes freely available.

James Burden, Scripture Union's Head of Publishing Operations, said PrayLive allows Christians to capture the immediacy of the moment with current affairs, and share their prayer with friends within their Facebook community. It is also rooted in Scripture with a daily Bible passage and prayer reflection.

Its unique feature is the 'prayer cloud', believed to be a 'first' in online social networking.This logs what is being prayed for, and creates a constantly updated list using weighted text according to how many people are praying for each topic.

Burden said: ''We believe Britain needs the prayer of Christians today. We launched PrayLive because we believe strongly in making a difference through prayer and in bringing people together.

"We want to encourage communities to form and grow in new and exciting ways. Facebook was the ideal platform for PrayLive because [it] overcomes the solitary nature of an online existence and allows people to pray with each other, pray for each other and encourage each other.

"PrayLive has the potential to show what Christians across Britain are praying for and to capture the mood of their prayer instantly and continuously."

Using PrayLive requires a Facebook account, which can be accessed free online at www.facebook.com