TheDay of Prayer for the Peace ofJerusalem is aprayer meeting organized byPentecostal evangelistsJack W. Hayford andRobert Stearns through their organization "Eagles Wings".[1] They annually invite people around the world topray for Jerusalem on the first Sunday of every October, close to the time ofYom Kippur.[2] The first prayer meeting organized by this group occurred in 2004.
Hayford and Stearns organize the primary meeting inIsrael. According to a CBN interview with Stearns, he believes that prayer meetings are important to combat various dangers to the Judeo-Christian worldview, such assecular humanism andRadical Islam, and he believes that Christians are especially obligated to support the State of Israel.[3]
According to "Jerusalem Newswire" a small independent Christian publication, organizers of the 2006 event claimed that they had scheduled prayer meetings to be held in 150,000 churches around the world. The coordinators scheduled for prayer meetings to be organized in 169 nations.
In 2004, 500 global Christian ministries representing 50 countries and 53,000 churches said prayers for peace in Jerusalem on the same day. The organization's goal in 2006 was to have over 100 million people in over 100 countries participate in prayer meetings.[4]The prayer meeting in Jerusalem in 2006 was held inside the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem and was attended by "hundreds of Christian lovers of Israel gathered with Jewish friends."
International denominationsAssemblies of God, andElim Fellowship took part in the 2006 prayer and support the annual prayers.
According to a press release issued by theKnesset Christian Allies Caucus, the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem was originally established in cooperation withIsrael's Ministry of Tourism, and the Christian Allies Caucus of theKnesset.[5]
The event is endorsed bychief rabbiYona Metzger, former USSR Prisoner of Zion and Knesset MemberNatan Sharansky, chairman of theKnesset Christian Allies Caucus (KCAC),Yuri Shtern, and the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem,Yigal Amedi and theKnesset Christian Allies Caucus. Other participants are Christian evangelists, authors and performers such asJoyce Meyer,The Newsboys,Bishop TD Jakes,Michael W. Smith, andKenneth Copeland.[4][6][7][8]
The first globally publicized "link of prayer" for peace from Jerusalem was the "World Prayer for Peace from Jerusalem" in June, 1993 organized by Dan Mazar'sJerusalem Christian Review, a Jerusalem-based archaeological journal. As opposed to the more exclusively Evangelical Christian event, this event included more than 100 Christian and political leaders from a wide range of backgrounds and from around the world.
Hosted by Jerusalem Christian Review Managing Editor Dan Mazar, parts of the Global Prayer were also shown on theCNN,CBS, andABC television networks and almost 120 other television stations worldwide. The Prayer Link began from Los Angeles, California with a prayer from the former US President,Ronald Reagan: "I join my friends at the Jerusalem Christian Review... for this very special day. A day dedicated to prayer..." said the former US president and governor of theState of California. The "prayer link" also included prayers of political figures live by satellite from 5 continents. Leaders such asJack Kemp,Jeane Kirkpatrick and numerous US Senators, as well as former Australian Prime MinisterBob Hawke all prayed for the "Peace of Jerusalem". Also included were Christian evangelistsBilly Graham,Pat Robertson,Jerry Falwell andJames Dobson, along with denominational leaders fromEurope,Africa,South America andAsia.[9][10]