Day of Prayer

A Day of Prayer is a day allocated to prayer, either by leaders of religions or the general public, for a specific purpose. Such days are usually ecumenical in nature. They usually are treated as commemorative in nature, rather than as actual liturgical feast days or memorials.

Pope John Paul II organized the first World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, Italy, on October 27, 1986. In all there were 160 religious leaders spending the day together with fasting and praying to their God or Gods. They represented 32 Christian religious organizations and 11 other non-Christian world religions, including:

In 1993, John Paul II repeated the Day of Prayer to pray for an end to the war in Bosnia, and invited leaders of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions. And on January 24, 2002, he organized another World Day of Prayer for Peace, again in Assisi. Some 200 other religious leaders were present, including Roman Catholic cardinals, Muslim clerics, Jewish rabbis, Buddhists, Sikhs, Bahais, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians and members of African traditional religions. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorism attacks, the event intended to discourage making religion a motive for conflict in the 21st Century- the Pope had explicitly condemned the attacks when they happened and again a year later at the commemoration, saying there was no possible excuse or justification for such acts.

Pope John Paul II's successor and former aide, Pope Benedict XVI, travelled to Assisi on Thursday, October 27, 2011 for an ecumenical discussion to commemorate the 1986 meeting, but there was no single interdenominational prayer service, reflecting the Pope Benedict XVI's view that, while such gatherings are good, one cannot give the impression- even externally, interpreted by others- that theological differences have been reduced or are not consequential.

The Global day of Prayer was founded by South African businessman Graham Power in 2000. Each year, the event spread to more African countries until it spread globally in 2005. It is an ecumenical Christian event and involves 10 days of prayer before the Western Christian observance of Pentecost (beginning with Ascension Day) and 90 days of prayer after Pentecost.

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