In 1988, Charlene Morgan and I were attending the National Black Women’s Health Conference in Detroit, Michigan. I had been sharing with Charlene that I thought she and I needed to do something about the rise in teenage pregnancy in our girls. Then, Charlene was the President of the Columbus School Board.
Charlene was a praying woman and so was I and so we decided that maybe we could get some women to pray with us and perhaps the collective power of our prayer might create a shift in behavior in our children and in our communities.

That summer we were joined by 70 women who prayed with us in Franklin Park. We would have been rained out had it not been for the curiosity of Pastor Leon Troy, Sr. of Second Baptist Church who came by to see how we were doing. He was very connected in the city and made a call. Someone came and opened up the shelter for us. We were safe, dry, and full of promise.

It was a great day. Many prayers were answered before the day was over! Attention to our Day of Prayer inspired several women to create organizations and alliances to work on some of the concerns that faced Black families in Columbus, Ohio. We take credit for “Joe’s Hole” a drug-infested bar in our community, closing just days after our collective prayers for our community.

Eight years later after a week of reflection and prayer in the Smokey Mountains. I returned with a whisper in my spirit to bring women together again for prayer. This would be a calling of all women who have a relationship with God to come together and to pray for ourselves, our children and families and for our communities.

That first Day of Prayer was incredible! We had about 150 women of all faiths to join us. We decided to have our Day of Prayer in a place that would not be controversial or hold some religious meaning. We were able to reserve the Franklin Park Conservatory. It is a gorgeous place of exotic plants, flowers and trees, and sculpture from all over the world. There is lots of sunlight, fountains, and space for holy prayer and reflection. We have been able to meet at the Franklin Park Conservatory every year. The Conservatory is on the bus line and there is lots of parking.

We hold our Women’s Day of Prayer on Monday because we want the women to actually set aside a day for collective prayer. We are fortunate that the Conservatory is available so we can have the Conservatory just for our Day of Prayer! Our Day of Prayer is held on the third Monday in August each year.
We encourage the women to wear white that day to be in prayer solidarity with each other. It is a beautiful sight. We also ask men and women to wear white that day even if they cannot be with us. There are many people who wear white to work to be in solidarity with us.

Since our beginning in 1996 we have grown to over 450 women who annually attend our day of prayer. The day is free of cost for attending. We offer a continental breakfast for those women who come early and we have a box lunch that is also free. There are over 55 women on the program over the course of the day.

We begin with a drumming ceremony and libation to honor our ancestors and all of the women who have gone before us. We read from various sources of sacred scripture, including the Bible, the Quran, and the Torah or it could be sacred scripture from the Buddhist Gosho or the sacred prayers of the B’hai. An elder woman is asked to call on the Presence of God to be with us. The Day is divided in three opportunities for intercessory prayer. In the morning we pray for women, in the afternoon for children and families and in the late afternoon for our communities. And in each section, there is prayer, testimonies, a speaker, and song or liturgical dance. We end our day praying together in a Unity Circle.

It is my hope that women will serve as witnesses to the power of collective prayer and use that energy to intentionally change the conditions in our families and cities that erode our quality of life. I believe that the Light for the darkness we are in is carried by
women and through the power of Ujima, the Kiswahili word for Collective Work and Responsibility, we can create a public Voice for change using the Spirit of God in us as our guiding Light.

It is our hope that sisters in other cities will accept the call and invite women in their cities to come and pray together for positive change in their families and communities. The Women’s Day of Prayer is a wonderful program of real diversity and religious expression. The benefits of hard work, commitment and dedication can bring great change in a community when women are called to pray together. What a gift!