Ninety Years - Young Dr. Corinthia Ridgely Boone’s Lifetime of Uniting Believers in Christ
"That they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
John 17:21
National Day of Prayer Task Force Board Chairman Geoff Eckart gifts Dr. Corinthia Ridgely Boone with a necklace to honor her decades of service and leadership during the National Prayer Committee gathering in Washington D.C. in May.
This week, we paused to observe Juneteenth – the 160th anniversary of freedom being heralded in Galveston Bay, Texas, as the Emancipation Proclamation was read and over 200,000 men, women, and children were liberated from the chains of slavery to walk in freedom.
While their freedom had been legally secured two years prior in 1863, the good news had not yet reached them – after the Civil War, Americans traveled throughout the reunited nation proclaiming the good news of emancipation. The people of Galveston Bay, Texas, were the last to learn of their emancipation on June 19, 1865, and since then, Juneteenth has become a celebration of all Americans gaining the freedom and liberty we cherish and safeguard.
In this same mission, as Christians, we are to proclaim the spiritual freedom that Christ has already given, inviting others to believe in Him and walk in salvation, free from the spiritual bondage of sin and death.
In the heart of celebrating this historically significant holiday, we are glorifying God for the testimony of Dr. Corinthia Ridgely Boone, one of the earliest African American leaders in the National Prayer Committee and National Day of Prayer Task Force, and a bold leader in proclaiming the Gospel and teaching believers how to walk in the unity of Christ Jesus.
At Ninety Years Young, Dr. Corinthia Ridgely Boone Continues in the Calling of God to Unite Believers in Christ
In February, Dr. Boone celebrated her 90th birthday, and in May the 2025 National Day of Prayer was the 40th year of the Capitol City National Day of Prayer (CCNDP), with Dr. Boone serving as the CCNDP Chairman from its inception. With the alignment of such celebratory milestones, we must pause to praise God for the mighty work He has done through His willing servant, Dr. Corinthia Ridgely Boone!
Dr. Boone rejoices with the many young leaders who gathered in prayer at the 2025 Capitol City National Day of Prayer Crescendo on the National Mall.
“This year (was) our fortieth CCNDP Crescendo,” said Dr. Boone. “It has always been a Crescendo because of the prayer process, the aligning of the multi-cultural, multi-generational, all year long.”
Ministries partnered together in the days leading up to the 2025 National Day of Prayer, with prayer gatherings, scripture reading, and worship throughout the week at various times and locations around the city. On the National Day of Prayer, the CCNDP Crescendo took place on the National Mall between the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument, uniting local believers and out of state travelers for a powerful time of worship, intercession, and commissioning.
Looking back four decades to the beginning of the National Day of Prayer as we know it today, Dr. Boone reflected, “That was a pivotal point in my life – Vonette (Bright) and I had a real bond, from the beginning.”
During that season 40 years ago, Vonnette Bright, wife of Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright, and the National Prayer Committee were sensing the call from God for a more strategic and specific expression of the prayer movement. In those days, there was no fixed date for the National Day of Prayer, and very little participation from the churches in D.C. These leaders felt that a National Day of Prayer observance in the nation’s capital would have a far-reaching ripple effect for increased interest in prayer. However, as Vonnette Bright reached out to mainly Caucasian-led churches in the D.C. area, there was little to no interest in joining the cause for unified prayer. The movement had hit a roadblock.
God had been growing Dr. Boone from a humble student of His word, hungry to learn, into a woman of wisdom and righteousness. At that time, Dr. Boone was serving as an elder and a sought-after teacher within her church, one of the largest churches in the D.C. area with a powerful multi-ethnic congregation devoted to prayer, worship, and the Word of God.
The Lord was moving His servants on paths that would collide in a burst of Kingdom glory!
Vonnette Bright approached Dr. Boone with a request for her church to participate in the 1984 National Day of Prayer.
“She was in tears because she knew she had a mandate from God,” Dr. Boone remembers. “The fact that she would even come to me – that took humility on her part. She had transcended the culture of her time, in her spirit.”
Dr. Boone listened carefully as Vonette Bright laid out all that God had put on her heart, and as their meeting came to a close, Dr. Boone gave her word to Vonnette Bright that she would enter into a time of dedicated prayer seeking the Lord and then reconnect for further conversation.
“In that time of prayer, the Lord made it clear to me that He wanted to bring His body together,” says Dr. Boone. “I had already been a part of that. God was expanding me to a whole new level. I caught a new vision in my spirit – here, God wanted to do a realignment.”
A small National Day of Prayer gathering was hosted at Dr. Boone’s church that year, as an add-on to an already-scheduled youth prayer gathering. The format quickly changed in the coming years.
In the spring of 1985, with President Reagan calling for a National Day of Prayer in just two months, Vonnette Bright called on Dr. Boone again. This time, Vonnette Bright was calling on her “Deborah,” as she lovingly referred to Dr. Boone, urging Dr. Boone to use her position and well-established prayer ministry at her church to put together a dedicated National Day of Prayer Observance for the D.C. community.
Prayer participants grasp hands as they unite in prayer at the 2025 CCNDP Crescendo.
The only available time for the prayer gathering was 6 a.m., but Dr. Boone persisted in prayer and the Lord confirmed this was to be the gathering time. God gave Dr. Boone a strategy for the prayer gathering to be structured around scripture-reading, prayer, and worship.
When the 1985 National Day of Prayer came, the massive auditorium was filled with Christians from all over the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region, worshipping and praying together!
In her book, “Corinthia: My Potter’s Wheel Journey Overcoming the Odds” Dr. Boone describes the unity and the power of God that participants experienced at that 1985 National Day of Prayer gathering, “Everyone was on the carpet before the Lord. Bill Bright had tears in his eyes as did most of us. For many (especially on the National Prayer Committee) this was their first experience in an African American, Spirit-filled setting where the presence of God was invited to move freely.”
Thus, the Capital City National Day of Prayer was birthed.
Following the powerful prayer gathering, Vonnette Bright called on Dr. Boone to host a smaller gathering at the church, where Dr. Boone was unanimously voted to be the chairperson for CCNDP.
Over the next few years, the CCNDP continued to grow and host their annual gathering at notable locations around D.C., including Constitution Hall and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in a mighty move of God’s Holy Spirit unity between Protestants and Catholics.
When the National Day of Prayer law was amended in 1988 with a fixed date on the First Thursday of May, there was an explosion of prayer mobilization activities across America, with the CCNDP leading the way as the shining example of the National Day of Prayer being a catalyst to believers growing in prayer and unity in the Holy Spirit.
Dr. Boone addresses the young Christian leaders participating in the 2025 CCNDP Crescendo.
For the last 40 years, the CCNDP, helmed by the indefatigable Dr. Boone with the support of her steering committee, has hosted their annual National Day of Prayer Crescendo as a celebration and culmination of all the unified prayers that are prayed throughout the year. God has brought believers of all denominations, ethnicities, languages, and ages together through CCNDP.
As she has labored for reconciliation and unity within the body of Christ, there have been many challenges through the years. Each time a roadblock appears, Dr. Boone runs straight to prayer, knowing that the Lord will fight her battles, and He will make her path straight and sure. Season after season the Lord has led her and the CCNDP through triumphs and turbulence.
In navigating all the possible ways to host a prayer gathering with many believers and backgrounds represented, she always prepares in prayer to receive a specific strategy from the Lord.
“It takes having communication with God to give the guidance, you can’t do it out of your own wisdom and understanding,” Dr. Boone says. “Persistence in prayer – that’s not an option; it’s an order from God that I might fulfill the purposes of God.”
Once she hears from the Lord, she communicates the strategy the Lord gives her to the rest of the prayer participants in a gathering, trusting there will be unity as all are coming under Jesus.
Through the years, God has always kept young people at the forefront of Dr. Boone’s heart. This NOW Generation – those who God has put on the earth together at this moment – must walk and worship together to accomplish the Great Commission and fulfill the purposes that God has laid out for each person’s life. To further support the development of new leaders, the Dr. Corinthia Ridgely Boone Foundation Scholarship Fund awarded a series of scholarships and celebrated these first recipients at a luncheon in May.
“God is raising up a generation that has the DNA to move forward with God’s heart, plan, energy, and vision,” Dr. Boone says. “We have to encourage them to keep the hope.”
She knows that the key is persistent prayer, pressing into the heart of God.
“We cannot move in the tradition of the past – it won’t work,” said Dr. Boone. “This is a new season in God, which means prayer has to take on, and mobilizing prayer has to take on, a whole new manifestation in the Earth.”
Just as Dr. Boone seeks God for the plans for this new season, we can all seek these new plans while reflecting on the outpouring of His Spirit on our mentors and previous generations, trusting, just as the Apostle Paul did in Philippians 1:6, “that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.”
