City of Distinction Presentation

(all or part can be used in presenting this to the Mayor or highest dignitary of city in attendance)

Since the Mayflower Compact, prayer has been a major part of our country’s Spiritual Heritage.

After the Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Convention convened in 1787 to determine the form of government that the thirteen colonies would have as a new nation.  They came to an absolute stalemate and a hopeless impasse.

It was then that Benjamin Franklin rose to his feet and said, “If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our Heavenly Father knowing it, how can a country come into existence without His awareness and blessing?”  He suggested they recess for a time of prayer.  They did.  When they reconvened it was only a short time before they agreed in principle to the very form of government we now have and enjoy.

It is a matter of historical record that since that time both the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives have opened every session of Congress with a word of prayer.

In the early 1940’s, some members of each of the houses began to meet weekly for prayer, sharing, and fellowship; the Senate on Wednesday morning and the House on Thursday morning.

It was in that spirit that General Dwight Eisenhower, when he was in a meeting with Kansas Senator Frank Carlson, Conrad Hilton of the Hilton Hotel chain, and Rev. Billy Graham, requested this same kind of prayer backing.  It was from this meeting that came the first Presidential Prayer Breakfast in February of 1953.

It was renamed the National Prayer Breakfast in the early 80’s.

Every President has attended each of the Prayer Breakfasts since its inception.

A transcript of the National Prayer Breakfast goes into the official Congressional Record each year.

Because   (city)    Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast is the local version and is patterned after the National Prayer Breakfast held annually in Washington, D.C., and because this Prayer Breakfast lifts up the spiritual heritage of our nation and presents God and country:

Therefore, this “City of Distinction” award is a symbol of recognition for cities whose leaders want to acknowledge our Spiritual Heritage, appreciate and reaffirm our continuing dependence upon God, and share the importance of prayer in their city’s life.

Kermit Sutherland