Presidential Prayer Breakfast
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES: Earlier this month I arrived back from the United States of America. I had travelled there at my own expense to give my annual lectures to students in urban missions and I took the opportunity, having been there for the past 18 years, to go on to Washington, DC to attend the annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast. For the past three years I have arranged the New South Wales Parliamentary Christian Fellowship Prayer Luncheon. With the help of some very good staff, about 300 Christian leaders and business people attend the luncheon in the Strangers Dining Room. I wanted to see what I could learn from the mother of all prayer breakfasts.
The prayer breakfast movement began in the war year of 1942 in the United States of America Senate. Today, parliaments in 142 countries have weekly prayer meetings and annual prayer breakfasts. In Australia we have prayer meetings in all State parliaments and in Federal Parliament. Reverend the Hon. Fred Nile has been the moving spirit behind the weekly prayer meetings and annual breakfast in New South Wales. This month more than 3,000 Christian politicians and church leaders from 160 countries attended. We stayed in the immense Washington Hilton Hotel. There were many international political leaders, such as the President of Malawi, the King of Jordan, the President of Afghanistan, the Prime Minister of Norway, Prime Ministers, former Prime Ministers, presidents, governors, senators, congressmen, Supreme Court judges, and leaders of countries large and small.
Many of them gave impressive prayers, such as Mrs Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, who had twice been overthrown by her army. Her husband was present, having just been released from gaol after 14 years detention as a political prisoner. I was impressed by a judge from Colombia, who had been imprisoning drug cartel leaders and had survived three massive assassination attempts on his life in the past three months. He spoke and prayed in the groups that I attended. Around the prayer breakfast there were three days of meetings in small groups. We discussed how we could legislate for a more just and Godly society, and leading issues relating to drugs, prison reform and the treatment of people with AIDS.
At a dinner for all parliamentarians I had the privilege of speaking and praying for all present. I also had lunch in the American Senate Dining Room with some of the senators and a visit to the House of Representatives, where, the night before, the President had delivered his State of the Union Address. The Presidential Prayer Breakfast was a magnificent event. There were 3,300 in the International Ballroom and an additional 1,400 in the room beneath. Security for these events was unbelievable, especially with the President present.
Honourable members might remember that it was at the door of his hotel that President Reagan was shot.
There was good music, meaningful testimonies and prayers. President George W. Bush, who was present with his wife, spoke of his faith in a down-to-earth Texan fashion. But the highlight was the main speaker, the U2 rock star Bono, who had been named TIME Magazine Person of the Year for his great work in raising money to help Africa’s epidemics and helping to relieve poverty in that great continent. He challenged every country to give 1 per cent of its gross national product to aid Africa. He spoke very bluntly to the President and challenged the Americans to lift their level of aid to overseas countries.
I felt very proud that we in Australia, following the tsunami and the lead of countries on issues of poverty, had lifted our level of gross national giving to overseas countries. It meant a great deal to me personally because in the late 1960s I helped lead a movement among churches to seek to convince governments to give 1 per cent of our gross national product to aid other countries and the alleviation of poverty. I gained many insights into improving our prayer work here and the support of members of all parties and of both Houses of this Parliament in the work we do representing the people who elect us. 2 March 2006.
