"Welcoming the stranger" is the theme from French women organising the 2013 World Day of Prayer.

The women are highlighting the tolerance that France is showing to newcomers.

In modern France about a fourth of all French people have a foreign-born grandparent. France has one of the highest rates of mixed marriage in Europe.

This huge exposure to multicultural, multiracial reality provides the French with a unique insight into dealing with diversity.

This reality impelled the French World Day of Prayer organisers to choose the theme of “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” based on the Gospel text of Matthew 25.

Each year the job of choosing the theme for the World Day of Prayer is done by a different country.

Held on the first Friday in March for over 80 years, the World Day of Prayer attracts participants in over 170 countries, bringing together various races, cultures and traditions on a common theme.

Prayers are said in more than 1000 languages, beginning at dawn in the Pacific and finishing 40 hours later in Alaska.

Built around Christian beliefs the event is unique in that it is run under the leadership of laywomen, rather than church officials or clergy.

As a genuinely ecumenical event it includes participants from virtually all Christian denominations. 

The New Zealand national committee for World Day of Prayer is based in Christchurch.

This year up to 250 World Day of Prayer events will be organised by local interdenominational groups.

Funds raised during World Day of Prayer events will go to four projects.

• Christian World Service,: to build resilience in the face of drought and climate change in Africa’s Sahel region www.cws.org.nz 

• ECPAT (Ending Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Child Trafficking for Sexual Purposes  www.ecpat.org.nz 

• Bible Society in France: Bibles in Prison project www.biblesoc.org.nz 

• Hospital Chaplaincy in New Zealand www.ichc.org.nz/chaplaincy.htm

For further information contact: Pauline McKay, 021 289-1225