From June, 1988

WASHINGTON, DC - For the first time in U.S. history, a bill enacting a permanent national day of prayer passed both houses.
The Senate bill, S. 1378, was introduced by South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, while the House version was introduced
by Ohio Democrat Tony Hall.

The measure amends a 1952 law which required the president to proclaim a day of his choosing each year. President Reagan
signed the bill into law in the Oval Office on May 5th and read a prayer translated from Russian. The prayer was found on a
young soldier, Alexander Zatzepa, who was killed in action in 1944.

Rep. Hall said at a "Praise and Celebration Banquet" held in conjunction with the event that he was surprised that the measure
went through so fast. Usually a commemorative measure needs 218 signatures, but the requirement was waived. "Now it's settled
 on the calenders of Americans," said Tim Bobbit, spokesman for the National Day of Prayer Task Force.

In addition to passage of the measure, 33 governors and over 150 mayors issued proclamations in their respective states and
cities to commemorate the day of prayer. "We've definitely seen more participation compared to last year," said Susan
Sorensen, spokeswoman for the National Prayer Committee.

In Chicago, city coordinator Sue Peterson organized 6,000 people to pray every hour. Olympic Gold Medalist John Naber was
the keynote speaker at a prayer breakfast in Pasadena, California. There were 100 mayoral proclamations in Maine and 20 in
Louisiana.

The measure was the result of an unusual bi-partisan effort. Four congressmen co-sponsored the measure: Rep. Carlos Moorhead
(R-CA), Rep. Robert Garcia (D-NY), Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), and Rep. Tony Hall(D-OH). Senate co-sponsors were: Sen. Strom
Thurmond (R-SC), Bill Armstrong (R- CO), Sen. Howard Heflin (D-AL), and Sen. Lawton Chiles (D-FL).

The National Prayer Committee was started in 1982 to coordinate and implement the commemorated day of prayer. Sorensen said
there has been a steady increase in the number of governors and mayors participating. "The only hindrance is the state not knowing
about it. However, a lot of other groups hold observances that we are not even aware of." The first day of prayer was declared by
the Continental Congress in 1775. In Reagan's 1987 proclamation, he stated, "On our National Day of Prayer, then, we join together
as people of many faiths to petition God to show us His mercy and His love, to heal our weariness and uphold our hope, that we might
live ever mindful of His justice and thankful for His blessing."

Reagan further urged "...the citizens of this great nation to gather together on that day in homes and places of worship to pray, each
after his or her own manner, for unity of hearts of all mankind."

WHEREAS, The Senate of the United States; devoutly recognizing the Supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in
all the affairs of men and nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer
and humiliation.

And Whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their
sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to
recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose
God is the Lord.

And, inasmuch as we know that by His Divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this
world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon
us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity.
We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

BUT WE HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; And have
 vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of
our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving
grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

IT BEHOOVES US, THEN, TO HUMBLE OURSELVES BEFORE THE OFFENDED POWER, TO CONFESS OUR NATIONAL SINS,
AND TO PRAY TO THE GOD THAT MADE US!

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate
and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer. And I do hereby request all
the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and
their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that
solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope, authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry
of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less the pardon of our national sins, and restoration of our now
divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington the 30th day of March, in the year of our Lord 1863.

Signed by Abraham Lincoln President of the U.S.A.

William H Seward,
Secretary of State

The Senate resolution requesting the president to proclaim a day for "national prayer and humiliation" was
introduced by Senator James Harlan on March 2, and adopted on March 3, 1863.

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Sources/References:
CHCC Family
Appleseeds.org
Prayer for America
Persecuted Church
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