Other events in Baltic States

This coming weekend, President Valdas Adamkus will be hosting the Eighth National Prayer Breakfast event entitled "The Lithuania We Wish to See", reports ELTA.

The national prayer breakfast, which is held under the patronage of the President of Lithuania, offers an opportunity for politicians, business representatives, public figures and young people to meet and share their thoughts and insights. The Eighth National Prayer will focus on Gospel values in our every-day personal and public life.

Saturday"s agenda includes a welcome address by President Valdas Adamkus and a message about the future vision of Lithuania delivered by Holger Lahayne, evangelical theologian and lecturer at the Evangelical Bible Institute.

Among Saturday"s speakers will be professor Egidijus Aleksandravicius from Vytautas Magnus University and Fr. Arunas Peskaitis, OFM, priest at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Vilnius. Taking part in the discussions will be guests from Belarus (Pavel Severinec), Estonia (Tonis Koiv), Latvia (Artis Pabriks), Germany (Rudolf Decker), Russia (Olga Cherkasova), Ukraine (Volodymyr Marushchenko), and the United States (Christian Jensen).

On Sunday morning, President Valdas Adamkus will host the Eight National Prayer Breakfast. The Opening Prayer will be delivered by Bishop Mindaugas Sabutis (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania). President Adamkus will be the keynote speaker at the prayer breakfast. Andrius Navickas, editor-in-chief of Bernardinai.lt, will share his thoughts about Lithuania and its future.

The musical background will be provided by the Gregorian choir Vox Clara and the Congregation of St. John"s Vilnius Monastery Choir. The singer at the national breakfast event will be Justina Arutiunian.

The tradition of holding prayer breakfast events emerged in the mid-20th century in response to the new challenges of those days. Their roots go back to 1942 when several US senators met informally to pray together and talk about the teachings of Christ and spiritual support to one another. The first National Prayer Breakfast took place in 1953. It was attended by the President of the United States.

In Lithuania, the first National Prayer Breakfast was held in 2001. Since then, this event has been fostered by President Valdas Adamkus.