Rotary International, known more commonly in the United States as The Rotary Club, describes itself as "The world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary Club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and
. eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self."When it comes to prayer, Rotary International comes into a conflict. Though at its core a Christian organization, founded and staffed primarily by members of that religion, the Rotary Club has no wish to offend local customs as they try to help internationally. Therefore Rotary International has gone to great efforts to create nondenominational prayers that can be spoken without risking offense or seeming to push their faith unto others who lack interest in worshiping exactly as they do. Their induction prayer goes as follows,"Let us pray silently together each of us according to our own individual beliefs. Let us offer thanks for our food and blessings for each other. Let us be a source of hope for those in need and contentment for those who are lonely. Let us give gratitude for our opportunity to serve Rotary. Let us give thanks to all our past leaders of this club. Grant the wisdom and vision to plan adequately and act correctly for our new Club president. From the words of a Tibetan monk: let the forces of light bring illumination to mankind. Let the spirit of peace be spread abroad. May men of goodwill everywhere meet in a spirit of cooperation. May forgiveness on the part of all men be the keynote at this time. Let power attend the efforts of the great ones. So let it be and help us do our part. Amen."More reference links: http://www.clubrunner.ca/Data/7910//HTML/102717//Rotary_Invocation_Booklet.pdf http://rotaryinvocations.com/
