By David Chua
LOCAL parishes are being urged to join over 300 cities in March when Perth hosts its first Lenten 40 Days For Life campaign to pray for an end to abortion.
Perth parishes will join Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and over 300 other cities worldwide, where the campaign has already drawn thousands of participants over recent Lenten seasons.
Accordingly, Perth’s campaign will begin on Ash Wednesday, 9 March when participants around the world will offer up fasting and prayer for an end to abortion until Palm Sunday, on 17 April.
Helene Sawyer, the coordinator of the Perth event, told The Record that the large scale of the campaign requires strong parish support. She hopes parishes will take on specific days or periods during the campaign for parishioners to contribute to the vigil. Participants will also participate in a local peaceful prayer vigil which will take place outside the Rivervale Pregnancy Termination Clinic on Cleaver Terrace.
The 6am to 6pm daily vigil each day in Lent – totalling over 400 hours of prayer – will include Daily Mass to be offered at nearby St Augustine’s Church in Rivervale for the souls of the unborn and those in the abortion industry.
The campaign’s arrival in Perth has united a diverse array of pro-life ministries from various Christian denominations.
Perth’s campaign director Brad Taylor, director of the pro-life group Justice Mandate, has organised the event with coordinators including Mrs Sawyer of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants and Pregnancy Assistance, Life Ministries director Dwight Randall, Family Life International regional coordinator Geoff Storey and Family Voice Australia’s Lance McCormick.
Mrs Sawyer told The Record that the campaign offers an opportunity not only for Catholics and Protestants to unite under a common cause, but for Catholics to “evangelise by example”.
The 40 Days vigils often follow common features of pro-life vigils typified by Catholic devotions such as the Rosary, the Divine Mercy chaplet and Catholic devotional hymns.
Mrs Sawyer also told The Record that the campaign’s motto, “pray to end abortion”, reflects the nature of the campaign as one focused not on ‘human protest’ against abortion, but rather the power of God to stop and heal abortion and its consequences.
“It is witnessing to Christ’s love for everyone, not protesting,” she said, adding that the public nature of Christian witness ‘in the world’ necessitates prayer that is unashamedly visible and public.
“We have an obligation to bring the Kingdom of God into this, and every other sphere of our society.”
The upcoming Lenten campaign will be the 40th coordinated campaign conducted around the world by 40 Days for Life since 2007.
It is estimated that more than 3,000 unborn lives have been saved internationally as a result of the campaigns.
Abortion was legalised in Western Australia in 1998. Since then, over 100,000 babies have been surgically aborted. Abortion rates continue to rise, with an estimated 10,000 babies to be aborted in 2011 in WA alone.
For more info, log onto www.justicemandate.org. Interested in helping? Contact Helene Sawyer 9402 0349 or email hmsawyer@hotmail.com