The National Prayer Breakfast

The National Prayer Breakfast is a yearly event held in Washington, D.C., on the first Thursday of February each year. The founder of this event was Abraham Vereide. The event—which is actually a series of meetings, luncheons, and dinners—has taken place since 1953 and has been held at least since the 1980s at the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue N.W.

It is a series of events that take place the entire week of the breakfast. Typically, members of Congress hold private meetings with individuals and groups, both American and international, to talk through issues of interest. There are regional breakfasts, luncheons and dinners plus several hospitality suites, such as a Florida suite or a Middle East suite. These present opportunities for people who live in the same regions to meet each other and build relationships outside the official sphere. While many of the events are open to anyone invited to the National Prayer Breakfast, others, such as the Africa breakfast or the International luncheon, require tickets and are only open to certain guests of the National Prayer Breakfast.

The breakfast, held in the Hilton’s International Ballroom, is attended by some 3,500 guests, including international invitees from over 100 countries. The National Prayer Breakfast is hosted by members of the United States Congress and is organized on their behalf by The Fellowship Foundation, a conservative Christian organization more widely known as "The Family." Initially called the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, the name was changed in 1970 to the National Prayer Breakfast.

It is designed to be a forum for political, social and business leaders of the world to assemble together and build relationships which might not otherwise be possible. ("The breakfast is regarded by the Family as merely a tool in a larger purpose: to recruit the powerful attendees into smaller, more frequent prayer meetings, where they can 'meet Jesus man to man.'") Since the inception of the National Prayer Breakfast, several U.S. states and cities and other countries have established their own annual prayer breakfast events.

The event has been criticized by organizations such as American Atheists and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, who describe it as violating separation of church and state.

Each year several guest speakers visit the various events connected with the National Prayer Breakfast. However, the main event, the Thursday morning breakfast, typically has two special guest speakers: the President of the United States and a guest whose identity is kept confidential until that morning. Every U.S. president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has participated in the breakfast. A partial list of past keynote speakers includes:

2005 (53rd Annual NPB) Ambassador Tony P. Hall, U.S. Representative to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture
2006 (54th Annual NPB) Bono,Irish singer/songwriter and humanitarian
2007 (55th Annual NPB) Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute
2008 (56th Annual NPB) Ward Brehm,a Minnesotan who chairs the U.S.-African Development Foundation
2009 (57th Annual NPB) Tony Blair,former Prime Minister of the UK
2010 (58th Annual NPB) Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain

While Members of the U.S. Congress, of the U.S. Cabinet, and of the diplomatic corps in Washington are typically invited to participate in the National Prayer Breakfast, the other more than 3,000 guests come from a variety of walks of life. Heads of state, members of the European Parliament; United Nations diplomats; European, Asian, African and Latin American politicians; missionaries working in various countries; U.S. and foreign business leaders; and students.