♦ If you are no longer the World Day of Prayer Coordinator for your area, please quickly pass this letter on to the person who is and let our office know about the change.
Or if there is no Coordinator for your area, please tell us that too.
November 2023
Hello World Day of Prayer Coordinator 2024
With prayerful hearts, we bring you the World Day of Prayer (WDP) 2024 program. The theme is “I Beg You … Bear With One Another In Love” based on Ephesians 4: 1-3 and it was written by Christian women in Palestine.
World Day of Prayer Coordinator is an important role, and your help in planning a service and telling others in your community about it is greatly appreciated.
Photos from Palestine – remember WDP donations fund grants all over the world!
We are pleased to bring you all the information you need to coordinate a service:
- The WICC website, wicc.org, has all the resources you will need. Use your email address to register and access service resources. Click this link for step-by-step instructions to register. If you do not have an email address, please recruit a friend or relative or church member who is willing to share theirs and receive information about WDP. After registering, you will also receive emails with WDP updates and information about special events. Note: if you have registered as a coordinator on wicc.org in the past, you do not need to do it again.
- Access information on coordinating WDP at: http://wicc.org/world-day-of-prayer/how-to-participate/. You can find the Planning Guide This document includes ideas for preparing for the service.
- The videos of a recorded WDP service were so popular in the past three years that we are making another one for 2024! It has participants from across Canada with closed captioning.
- You can download the video service for free after February 1, 2024.
OR
- You can buy a USB memory stick($20) that includes the service video as well as music, a devotional message, PowerPoint service, and a PowerPoint about Palestine that you can show during your WDP gathering. Order online at org/wicc-store. With the USB, you will also receive a paper copy of the worship service, a bulletin version, information on Palestine, and offering envelopes. These will be shipped in January 2024 but please order as soon as possible.
- The WDP Worship Service will be available to you as a computer file when you log in for service resources. The Service is available in English, bilingual English and French, Spanish, and German.
- There’s lots more for World Day of Prayer on our website: posters, music, recipes, hymn suggestions, a devotional video message, a PowerPoint service and much more. All resources are available to download for free.
- For free Offering Envelopes, please order online or call or email our office.
If you have been a coordinator before, these changes may be new to you:
- Coordinators can download resources and order a USB stick online using your email (there are no Service tracking numbers).
We Are Here to Support You
If you need assistance to register or log in, or any other aspect of World Day of Prayer, please contact your WDP Field Rep:
| Field Rep Area | Field Rep | Email Address | Telephone |
| BC, AB, SK, YT, NT, NU | Linda Ervin | fieldrep567@wicc.org | 250-493-5333 |
| MN | Patricia Baker | fieldrep23@wicc.org | 204-416-0133 |
| ON*, | Cathy Tubb | fieldrep45@wicc.org | 416-450-1027 |
| *Toronto, ON | Janet MacFadyen | communications@wicc.org | 647-515-7770 |
| QC, NB, PE, NS, NL | Julie Ginter | fieldrep4@wicc.org | 905-550-2307 |
Or contact the WICC office administrator, Nancy Weir, at 416-929-5184 or wicc@wicc.org
SAVE THE DATES: Saturday, November 18, 2023 from 1-2pm EST for an online WDP Coordinators’ Network event. Register online for the Zoom link at wicc.org/get-involved/events/
Online National Festival Day – January 13, 2024; 1:30 pm EST. Register online today.
Thank you so much!
Blessings,
Catherine MacKeil
Executive Director WICC
Gathering together in a worldwide movement of informed prayer and prayerful action for peace, justice, and reconciliation.
Frequently Asked Questions about World Day of Prayer Writing Committees (WDP 2024)
How is the writing committee chosen for World Day of Prayer? In August 2017, 188 delegates traveled from around the world to attend the World Day of Prayer International Meeting in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. These women came from Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox traditions to pray together, share their stories in community, and make decisions for the future of the movement. It was an executive committee of these delegates who selected the writer committee for 2024.
How is the theme chosen for World Day of Prayer? Every five years, the World Day of Prayer International conference is held. Each national committee is given the opportunity to submit a theme, along with a suitable Bible passage. During this international meeting, a committee considers the various suggestions for themes, and then chooses themes as well as writing regions for the next five years. Palestine was chosen to be the writing committee for 2024 and was given the theme on which to base the service.
What is the membership structure of the World Day of Prayer International Committee? The WDPIC constitution divides its membership by 7 regions in order not to be restricted by geo-political designations. “Regions” of the world are namely, Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Caribbean-North America and Pacific.
How should we receive the World Day of Prayer service written by the Palestine writing committee? Each year the WDP theme and the worship service developed by women of another region is a gift. Receiving it is a spiritual process. It needs time, open hearts and minds, careful listening and speaking, willingness to stretch beyond what is familiar. When we receive the liturgy in a local community, we begin by ensuring that there is an atmosphere that is spiritually open and non-judgmental. In this way we can listen to the voices of faraway women and to the biblical message they want to convey to us. In a climate of attentive listening, we will hear them speak about their hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, and at the same time we will listen to the women next to us and find our own response. We use silence to reflect and pray.
How do we respond when some people object to the writing committee region? In 1994, when Palestine was the writing committee for the World Day of Prayer service, Eileen King, then executive director of the International Committee for the World Day of Prayer, reminded participants that the 1994 service was to be understood as one written by Palestinian Christian women, not a Palestinian service. Let us, then, look now for commonalities and avoid polarization. Let us be an example of women working well together with as purpose to build relationships with women in other regions of the world, and grow and deepen our understanding, in part, by reading our Palestine background information. As the service theme suggests, I beg you … bear with one another in love.
Are World Day of Prayer donations given to the writing committee region? No, donations in Canada support future World Day of Prayer services as well as grants provided in Canada and internationally. World Day of Prayer grant applications are received via wicc.org and carefully assessed.
What is the meaning behind the symbol for World Day of Prayer? The symbol for World Day of Prayer was developed by the women of Ireland and adopted as the international logo in 1982. Its design is made up of arrows converging from the four points of the compass, people kneeling in prayer, the cross, and the circle, representing the world and our unity through all our diversity.
