Citizens of Selma, AL Become Links in Prayer Chain

On Thursday, May 7, 2008, many residents of the city of Selma, AL will join hands in prayer for the National Day of Prayer. At 5:30 in the afternoon we will make a prayer chain whose links will be the people of Selma.

The chain will run from City Hall two blocks south to Water Avenue, which is the foot of the famous Edmund Pettus Bridge. The chain will then go over one block on Water Avenue and back up past the library and the City's Morgan Convention Center, coming back around the block to City Hall. Volunteers will walk around the chain, handing out cards with suggested subjects for prayer. Subjects will cover many areas from the economy to youth.

President Harry Truman signed into law a National Day of Prayer on April 17, 1952. The day was not a fixed day, but allowed for a focused national day of prayer.

It was not the first time a president called for such a day. President John Adams declared May 9, 1798 as "a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer.... that our country may be protected from all the dangers which threaten it." In 1863, during the Battle at Gettysburg, during which more Americans lost their lives than in any other single event before or since, President Abe Lincoln called for a day of fasting and prayer.

The National Day of Prayer was solidified in 1988, when then President Ronald Reagan signed an amendment to Truman's law making the day the first Thursday of each May.

Mayor George Evans established a monthly prayer meeting in the city in January, following a spate of shootings which left several of Selma's youth dead and others in jail facing murder charges. The monthly prayer meeting is still held at the Morgan Convention Center on the second Monday at 5:30 p.m. This month's prayer meeting is rolled into the National Day of Prayer chain on Thursday. The regular prayer meetings on Mondays will resume next month.

Mrs. Jakki Caldwell-Phillips is coordinating the Prayer Chain. She is asking people to come as early as they can, as early as 5:00, so that the Prayer Chain can be fully formed by 5:30.

National Day of Prayer Official Website:

http://www.ndptf.org/home/home.html

The Selma Times Journal

http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/news/local/