HOW THE WORLD DAY OF PRAYER BEGAN
1887-2006 now 119th year

The burden for a day of prayer came in 1887 from Mrs Darwin R James, then president of the Women's Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church (in the USA). She sent out a call for a national day of prayers, asking particularly for a "prayer chain". In 1890 two Baptist women visiting the Far East saw a great need for the salvation of women in that part of the world. Upon their return to the United States, they established a day of united prayer for foreign missions. By 1919 these two national days of prayer were combined into one and it focused on missionary work. A committee composed of representatives from inter- denominational home and foreign missions planned and promoted the day, and it became known as "World Day of Prayer for Missions". By 1927 the name of the day became simply "World Day of Prayer".
This annual WDP, fixed on the first Friday of March, was observed originally for the purpose of calling on the Lord of the harvest to send recruits and messengers to evangelize the world and reap His harvest in obedience to Christ's Great Commission.

With the coming into being of the Ecumenical Movement, however, the WDP has in recent years often been used by the World Council of Churches to promote its nefarious one-world church movement without regard for spiritual unity based on the purity of the faith.
The International Council of Christian Churches has observed the WDP, from 1969. Each year a Theme is selected from the Bible. The call to pray addresses the fundamental need of Christians to be right in their relationship with God. Hence this series of prayer meetings, commencing with tonight's meeting. In keeping with the original purpose of the WDP, we will be praying for our Government and people, for Christian missions, preserving the historic Christian faith and relieving human sufferings go hand in hand together in the promotion of a truly Biblical missions programme. May God revive our hearts for His work and use us mightily in the remaining years before Christ returns!


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