Women's World Day of Prayer is today

The Women’s World Day of Prayer has a long history. Since 1812, women had encouraged one another to engage in personal prayer and to lead communal prayer with their mission associations. This emphasis led to annual days and weeks of prayer within individual denominations. Despite opposition from men, from 1861, women in the USA and Canada organised themselves into co-operative mission boards for foreign and home missions whereby they could work and pray directly with and for women.

By 1871, the Presbyterians had called for a day of prayer for Home Missions and the Methodists had called for a week of prayer and self-denial for foreign missions. By 1891, the Baptists had joined in and in 1895, the Anglican Church in Canada had also instigated a day of prayer. This led to a joint venture of six denominations forming a united day of prayer in 1897, which was the catalyst for many more interdenominational arrangements. In 1910, the USA celebrated 50 years of women’s missionary activity which highlighted the benefits of ecumenical co-operation, local and global networking, prayer, biblical study and reflection.

In 1922, the first Friday in Lent became the focus for women’s prayer in America and Canada. In 1926, the material created for the day was distributed for the first time throughout the world, to many mission partners and women’s groups; it was greeted with huge enthusiasm and Women’s World Day of Prayer came into being. The official day was 90 years old last year. It was a lady called Grace Forgan who first heard of the Women’s Day of Prayer in 1928 when she was at an international missionary conference in Jerusalem. The first services to celebrate Women's World Day of Prayer in the UK were held in the 1930s, although Catholic women were unable to join in until after the second Vatican Council in 1967. In 1969, the Catholic women’s own day of prayer was moved to coincide with the WWDP.

In 1982, women from all over Ireland, North and the Republic, Catholic and Protestant, prepared the material for the act of worship which is used by all participants worldwide. Last year 275,000 copies of the service were printed! This year, the service is prepared by women in The Philippines. It is one of the fastest-growing Asian economies with labour migration a major economic force. 90% of domestic workers are women, of which the majority work in the Gulf states. Although the constitution is for equal rights, women are often discriminated against and treated unfairly in the home, at church and by society, even though in many families, they are the breadwinner. The theme of this year’s prayer is ‘Am I being unfair to you’ which highlights this issue.

In Beverley, Women’s World Day of Prayer is celebrated at Toll Gavel United Church at 2pm with women from many different denominations leading the worship. An offering is taken which is used by the WWDP movement to help support various charities and mission partners throughout the world. For example, The Bible Society, Torch Trust, Leprosy Mission, Dalit Solidarity and Sportsreach have all been recipients of grants. Although the focus is on women, men are warmly invited to attend the worship!