On Sept 21, within the campaign Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace (2001-2010), the International Day of Prayer for the second year will connect about 560 million Christians worldwide to pray together for Asia in an effort to establish peace.

Last year, the World Council of Churches (WCC) called on churches to add an International Day of Prayer for Peace that asks churches to cooperate by including prayers into their services before and after Sept 21.

This year's focus is on Asia with the theme "Building communities of peace for all," which was proposed by churches in Asia.

Hope S. Antone, executive secretary for Faith, Mission and Unity of the Christian Conference for Asia (CCA), said that this year's theme conveys a "spirit of celebrating diversity."

"We [will look at others] as brothers, sisters, partners, whom God also loves, to whom God has also revealed truths, from whom we can learn about life, living and relating, and in whom we can also find the image of God," she said.

The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) said that making the communities aware of "the realization that God's will [fulfills] life for all" is essential in building communities in Asia.

In 2001, the UN General Assembly proposed that on Sept 21 of each year, the entire world would observe a day for peace and nonviolence. Then, in 2004, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, supported WCC's proposal by allowing this day to also be an international day of prayer.