By Rachel Psutka
The impoverished and voiceless women of Malaysia were the recipients of prayer from Belleville as local women joined thousands of others around the globe on Friday to celebrate World Day of Prayer.
More than 100 local women and a handful of men represented more than 15 local churches at the celebration held at Holy Rosary Catholic Church. The prayer service featured Bible readings and songs from a choir composed of women from many of the churches. The service itself was written by an ecumenical Christian group in Malaysia, following the theme “let justice prevail.”
“It’s a Christian service, and that’s something that we bring to the forefront here,” explained Marilyn Fortin, the president of Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada. “And it’s a women’s service, because we’re the voice of women that don’t have a voice. In Canada, we’re pretty lucky. We have a voice. In many countries, women don’t have a voice.”
Fortin, who resides in Belleville, is part of the council that meets internationally every four years to decide on the countries and themes for the next few years of World Day of Prayer, an event that was first held nationally in Canada in 1920.
“We have over 2,000 services in Canada alone, and there’s over 170 countries now involved in World Day of Prayer,” said Fortin, noting that Belleville’s turnout for the event is always high.
With Canada being so late in the time zones of the world, Fortin said that the women of Malaysia reap the benefits of prayer over a long time period.
“Last night at 10:30 p.m. I received an email from Samoa, and they’d already had their World Day of Prayer. This is nearly 24 hours later and the world is still vibrating with prayer for the women of Malaysia,” she said.
Also welcoming the faithful to his North Park Street church was Rev. John Hibbard, though he said he had little to do with the organization of the event.
“The women organize everything. It’s an annual event, and that’s the unique thing about it. It’s the one time that the women really plan it, do it, and support it, as you can see,” said Hibbard.
The spirit of inter-denominational cooperation to fight for social justice and promote women’s rights is the driving force, said Hibbard.
“It’s a good time for people from different Christian churches to come together. We don’t do that enough,” he said.