KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — The National Leadership Prayer Breakfast (NLPB) Committee is staging a National Week of Prayer, as part of efforts to encourage Jamaicans to pray about issues affecting their lives.

Dubbed ‘Prayer Blitz’, the week will start on Thursday, January 9 and culminate with the 34th staging of the national prayer breakfast scheduled for Thursday, January 16.

Throughout the week, Jamaicans are being asked to pray for religious, corporate, family, community, youth, educational, political and security and justice leaders.

Speaking at a press conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston Tuesday Chairman of the NLPBC, Rev Dr Stevenson Samuels, urged Jamaicans to participate by simply taking a minute or two out of their daily schedules.

He said that a detailed programme of the ‘Prayer Blitz’ will be published in the newspapers Thursday.

The theme for this year’s NLPB is ‘Courageous Leadership for Challenging Times’ and the event will be held under the patronage of Governor General Sir Patrick Allen.

The purpose of the annual prayer breakfast is to foster greater unity in the nation, particularly among leaders at all levels, through prayer and fellowship. Attendance at the breakfast is by invitation only.

Proceeds from this year’s event will go towards bolstering initiatives of the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI), particularly its feeding programme.

The first prayer breakfast was held in January 1981 arising out of the church’s concern for peace and justice, reconciliation and unity in the nation.

The Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS) has been sponsor of the event since 1985.