People from varying faiths to gather for National Day of Prayer

 

Thursday is National Prayer Day, and South Bend is using it to bring people of all faiths together for its annual prayer breakfast at the Century Center in South Bend. 

The heavy focus will be on immigration. The theme of the day is "Strangers on our shores." Donald Knebel of the Center for Interfaith Cooperation will give the keynote. He will highlight how religious differences often stoke fear, mistrust and violence. There will also be prayers held by a wide range of faiths, including Sikh, Jewish, Baha'i, Christian and Islam. 

This all comes as the Trump administration is set to step into the arena with a religious liberty executive order.

The order signing would ease restrictions that limit political participation by tax exempt religious groups. That rolls back the Johnson amendment, fulfilling a key campaign promise from Trump. 

That news may be welcome to some locally, as South Bend's prayer breakfast is set to discuss how religion can play a role in key issues of today, like immigration.