Word: prayers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...spiritual concerns and power politics may seem paradoxical, yet the distinctive pressures of Washington life seem to be the driving force behind the prayer networks. "In this city, it is very rare to find friendships for friendship's sake," explains Senate chaplain Richard Halverson. "I think it is an expression of the need to share and express feelings with people you can trust." Besides providing a support group where people can pray together and confide personal problems, these weekly gatherings usually focus on Bible studies. "Calling yourself a Christian without reading the Bible is like calling yourself an engineer without...
...prayer network began when Abraham Vereide, a Methodist from Montana, came to town in 1935 with the seemingly quixotic goal of providing spiritual succor to politicians. His successor, Doug Coe, leads Fellowship House, the < belle epoque-style mansion that serves as unofficial headquarters for the movement. Coe and his associates have tried to maintain secrecy about most of their activities to protect the privacy of prominent members, whose ranks represent most branches of Christianity...
Besides Fellowship House, organizations fostering informal prayer meetings include the Christian Embassy, Here's Life: Washington, and Community Bible Studies, which oversees 150 such groups nationwide. There are gatherings in the Capitol, State Department, Pentagon and White House, as well as special prayer meetings for lawyers, real estate agents, businessmen and journalists. One Jewish Senator, Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, leads a Bible study group...
...most visible event for Fellowship participants is the National Prayer Breakfast. The annual gathering was launched by the late Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas, who talked President Eisenhower into being host of the first one in 1953. President Bush, a regular Episcopal churchgoer, will hold his initial prayer breakfast this week. It will be attended by some 4,000 people, including ranking officials from all branches of Government, plus diplomats and clergy, who will join in a 90-minute round of prayer and testimonials at a Washington hotel. (At one such session in the Reagan era, former Soviet Ambassador Anatoli...
Though it is a solidly rooted Washington tradition, the National Prayer Breakfast does have its critics. Some Fundamentalists thought interfaith amity was stretched too far last year, when Saudi Arabia's Ambassador recited from the Qur'an. Hatfield complains that the breakfast has become a status symbol and "a ceremony of civil religion." He has introduced a Senate motion to abolish the affair. Many foreign observers find the whole phenomenon of Potomac piety somewhat disconcerting. "It is incomprehensible to most Europeans," sniffs a British diplomat. "It's almost as bad as Freemasonry...