History of the Breakfast

1935 · Seattle

Nineteen business executives met to face a critical season in the life of their city. Looking for a way through the tensions that accompany public life, they turned to the two-thousand-year-old story of Jesus of Nazareth at a meal.

According to the record in John 21, Jesus invited friends to the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. At that breakfast he showed the power of God in an abundant catch of fish, the love of God in his reconciliation with Peter, and the lasting worth of gathering people to eat, to fellowship, and to pray.

1935 to 1942 · A movement of breakfast groups

As the Seattle executives continued to meet, a vision of usefulness was born. They resolved to serve as agents of reconciliation in their personal lives and businesses. A concern for the poor and oppressed grew among them. Other breakfast groups sprang up through Washington State, then south to San Francisco, east to Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, and in 1942 to Washington, D.C.

1942 · Capitol Hill

Breakfast groups were founded in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Members began to meet as friends, across party lines, while Congress was in session.

1953 · President Eisenhower

President Dwight D. Eisenhower accepted the invitation of Members of Congress to join them at breakfast. That gathering, first known as the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, has been held every year since. The name became the National Prayer Breakfast in 1970. Every sitting president has attended.

Today · A divided nation

Our nation is divided. We have changed the name of this great event to the United States Prayer Breakfast to reflect the aspiration of nurturing a place to unite by embracing the principles of Jesus of Nazareth where our leaders can love both friend and enemy alike.