Community members are invited to come together and pray for our nation starting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 1 at Boothbay Baptist Church in a meeting sponsored jointly with the Boothbay Region Community Fellowship.

Prayer will be offered up for local, state and federal governments and their leaders, the military, the family, the church, education, business and media. The service will feature music interspersed throughout the prayer rotations as small groups move from one topic to another.

The theme for the 2014 National Day of Prayer is “One Voice, United in Prayer,” based on Romans 15:6, “So that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Millions of Americans are expected to unite at more than 42,000 locations from coast to coast to pray for these United States, a tradition that goes back to the country’s founding. Since the first call to prayer in 1775 when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation, the call to prayer has continued through our history, including President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of a day of “humiliation, fasting and prayer” in 1863.

In 1952 a joint resolution by Congress signed by President Harry Truman declared an annual National Day of Prayer, and in 1988 the law was amended and signed by President Ronald Reagan permanently setting the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday of every May.

The National Day of Prayer stands as a call to come humbly before God, seeking His guidance for our leaders and His grace upon us as a people.

All are welcome to join in this corporate petition to our Heavenly Father for guidance, protection, healing and strengthening of our nation and its citizens.