World Day of Prayer

The World Day of Prayer is an international ecumenical Christian laywomen’s initiative. It is run under the motto “Informed Prayer and Prayerful Action, ” and is celebrated annually in over 170 countries on the first Friday in March.

A registered charity, each Country has their own committee and there is a World meeting every four years.

Each meeting brings special contributions to the growth of the movement when women gather:

to share experiences of the World Day of Prayer

to select themes and writers for the worship services

to elect an executive committee that is ecumenical, with representatives from Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions and comprised of a chairperson, treasurer and representatives from Africa, Asia, Caribbean/North America, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and the Pacific

to prepare a budget based on contributions from the national committees and special gifts

to consider ways by which the movement may grow

This year the World Day of Prayer in Blaby was held in the Baptist Church on Friday 6th March. There was a good congregation who participated in the service written by the Christian women in Zimbabwe. We joined in with the chosen hymns and enjoyed the support of a very professional music group. Life in Zimbabwe is not easy and the readers helped us understand the hardships in that country. There is poverty, lack of water and the women have to rear their children and work very hard.

The Baptist Church put on a lovely display to remind us of the Country we were praying for. Candles were lit to illustrate the colours of the flag of Zimbabwe; red, green and yellow. A final white candle was lit for unity.

The service was very moving and reminded us how lucky we are in this country as we are not persecuted at all. Val, Viv, Elizabeth, Edna and myself took part in the service. The theme was “ Rise! Take up your mat”. With reference of course to Jesus at the pool in Bethesda when the lame man was healed and took up his mat and walked. Very meaningful to us all, an afternoon of prayer and praise we will all remember for a long time. We thank the women of Zimbabwe for this service and pray that our response will be positive as we commit ourselves to positive prayerful action.

Carole