World Invocation Day Vigil
Every year, since 1952, people in all parts of the world have celebrated World Invocation Day on the day of the Gemini full moon. It is a global day of prayer and meditation when people of different spiritual paths join in a universal appeal to divinity, using the Great Invocation.
In 2000, the Triangle Centre, a Unit of Service in New Zealand, wanted to do something special for World Invocation Day. Because of its proximity to the dateline New Zealand would be the first country in the world to greet the first World Invocation Day of the new millennium. The group contacted friends and co-workers throughout the country, offering to co-ordinate a nation-wide, inter-group co-operative effort, sounding the Great Invocation regularly throughout the 24 hours of World Invocation Day. Individuals and groups were invited to sign up for particular slots of time, agreeing to sound the Great Invocation at least once every 15 minutes during their chosen period.
The question was, from a small country like New Zealand, would it be possible for the Great Invocation to be sounded every 15 minutes throughout the 24 hours of the Day? There was an enthusiastic response to the call for participants and, although not all time slots were covered, there were groups of people sounding the Great Invocation for most of the time, including many of the difficult early morning hours. To our surprise a number of co-workers from other countries also participated.
In 2001 the Vigil was again repeated, this time with more participants (primarily from New Zealand, but also including co-workers from a few other countries), and this time covering every 15 minutes of the 24 hours. Every year since then the Vigil has operated in New Zealand, uniting a variety of groups around the country in this common service to humanity and the Plan.
In 2003 co-workers in Argentina translated the Vigil materials into Spanish, and from this time onwards, large numbers throughout Latin America have signed up for the Vigil.
In 2006 one of the original founders of the Triangle Centre moved to live in the USA. Working closely with colleagues in Latin America, a World Invocation Day Vigil was coordinated for co-workers and groups throughout the Americas – again inviting participants to register to sound the Great Invocation on the quarter hour for the 24-hour period in each time zone of the region. Invitations were circulated in Spanish and English, and 96 groups sponsored the Vigil. The Great Invocation was sounded every 15 minutes for the 24 hours in most parts of the region – with a minimum of 3 registrations in each time slot and some times as many as 77 groups or individuals registered to sound the Great Invocation.
The Vigils in the Americas and New Zealand have continued since 2006, with registration now being done on-line at: http://www.intuition-in-service.org/Vigil.cfm . In 2009 the World Invocation Day Vigils took another step forward when a Vigil for Europe (including the 50 countries of Europe from the Urals in the East to Ireland in the West) was organised. While it is envisaged that these annual regional Vigils for coordinated, rhythmic use of the Great Invocation every 15 minutes may be combined into a single global Vigil, it is hoped that sponsoring groups will continue to focus on attracting participants from their nation and region. This way it is hoped that the Vigil will contribute to awakening the soul of the nation and the region – as well as the soul of humanity as a whole.
Drawing on this experience with World Invocation Day, Intuition in Service has, since 2002, organised a similar Vigil at a global level on the United Nations International Day of Peace, September 21. Meditation and prayer vigils are organised all over the world by faith based groups on this day and the Intuition in Service Vigil invites participants to register on line to use the Great Invocation or a world prayer of their choice every 15 minutes for chosen periods of time – aiming to cover the 24 hours of Peace Day in all time zones.