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World Day of Prayer

Mar
5
2010

CameroonThe 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. The movement aims to bring together women of various races, cultures and traditions in a yearly common Day of Prayer, as well as in closer fellowship, understanding and action throughout the year.

Every year, worship service focuses on a different country and a specific theme. World Day of Prayer National/Regional Committees of that country prepare the order of worship on these themes to be used on the next World Day of Prayer.

On the first Friday of March, then, in services all over the world that country becomes the focus of prayer and understanding. Through preparation and participation in the worship service, women worldwide learn how their sisters of other countries, languages and cultures understand the biblical passages in their context. They learn of the concerns and needs of those women and to empathize and feel in solidarity with them.

The focus of World Day of Prayer 2010 is Cameroon. The women of Cameroon tell us, “In the Cameroonian context people praise God even in and especially during difficult times in their lives. This is because generally we consider life to be God’s greatest gift to us. As long as one has breath, there is hope. So we sing in the hope that things will be better.“

In this statement we become aware of the inseparable connection and creative interplay between two key words of the theme: breath and praise. While the mechanisms will vary among all the species that inhabit the earth, nonetheless, everything that is alive breathes.

Mostly we do not notice our breathing until we have difficulties. Then we say, “I need to catch my breath.”  When we sing we use our breath to make music. When we are in acute pain, we cry out. Whatever sound we make, it is linked to our breath, to our very life which is a gift from God. In English the word praise has its root in the verb to prize, to value. Our sisters from Cameroon remind us that with every breath we renew the gift of life and for this we praise God.

The World Day of Prayer will be celebrated this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at Teeswater United Church.

For additional information: World Day of Prayer International Committee or Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada

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This work by Mark W. Law & The Teeswater.Ca Team is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.