World Day Observance in Spain

Youth-organized observance in Spain of the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children.

World Day of Prayer and Action for Children celebrated in Spain

The Day of Prayer celebrations in Spain took place on 20th November, 2011, the same day of the general elections in the country. The main theme of the celebration was violence against children and the importance of ethic and spiritual education to address this problem.

There were two main activities for the celebration:  the children’s programme which started at 11h00, and the main prayer event which started at 17h30. The children’s programme included a workshop where they prepared an artistic presentation on empathy and love towards others as a way of transforming violence into peaceful living.

The prayer event started with a brief introduction and a multi-religious prayer session, followed by the projection of a UNESCO video on children´s rights and other presentations on spiritual education for children. The programme also included the artistic presentation performed by children who attended the parallel programme.

The event was organized by the Baha’I Community of Madrid and the Evangelical Anglican Church. The 35 participants came from the Christian (Catholic and Protestant) and Baha’I faith.

One of the main outcomes of the celebration was raising the visibility within the audience about the need to develop an interreligious commitment on children’s issues and joint responses to the problems of violence that they face. The celebration was very successful in its programme and goals, but the number of participants was affected by the fact that it coincided with general elections in Spain.