On the first Sunday in October every year Life Chain invites people in every city, town and village in North America to stand on a designated local sidewalk and spend 60 to 90 minutes in silent prayer for the pre-born and for an end to abortion.
This year’s Life Chain, the 27th annual public witness on behalf of pre-born children, will take place across the United States and Canada on Sunday, October 5.
Life Chain involves a time of silent prayer and public witness and will take place from 2 to 3 p.m. local time, or in some areas from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Participants, now numbering in the millions, stand in witness on sidewalks along major streets in towns and cities, peacefully and prayerfully holding signs reading “Abortion Kills Children,” “Abortion Hurts Women,” “Jesus Forgives and Heals,” and “Adoption: The Loving Option” before passers-by and motorists.
Please Let Me Live, a small pro-life ministry in California, built the first Life Chain, with about 2,000 participants, in 1987.
In 1991, National Life Chain Sunday drew 373 chains in the US with 771,000 participants.
By 1993, it had grown to over 900 chains in the US and Canada, but attendance taking was discontinued due to both the huge number of participants and the organizers’ realization of an “excessive preoccupation with numbers and a lack of emphasis on prayer.”
In 2013, 1550 cities and towns across North America held Life Chains in 1,890 locations.
“Life Chain is not chiefly a demonstration, and its witness is not intended for the viewing public only,” the organizers state.
“Instead, its first goal is to minister to its own participants—to those who call Christ their Lord and hold pro-life messages that declare abortion a grave evil that defames the name and holiness of God.”
Accordingly, the organizers say that during the Life Chain hour, idle chatter, frivolity, and both verbal and physical responses to passers-by and motorists are strongly discouraged.
“Life Chain is,” they state, “a time for prayerful self-analysis, repentance, and serious commitment to helping end abortion in our nation.”
To see Life Chain locations across North America and to find the closest one to you, visit the Life Chain Network here.
Canadian Life Chain locations are posted here.
