Hundreds of churches and Christian organisations around the world will pray for peace this Sunday on International Day of Prayer for Peace.

The 24-hour prayer event will bring together nine countries - America Samoa, Canada, Fiji, Indonesia, New Zealand, Norway, Samoa, Tuvalu and the United States.

"Our hope is that participating congregations intentionally build new or deeper ecumenical and interfaith relationships at the local level, so they are in a strengthened position for addressing violence in their communities on a more ongoing basis," said Matt Guynn of On Earth Peace, the group organising this year's day of prayer.

The idea for the International Day of Prayer for Peace was first proposed in 2004 during a meeting between World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, and the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

They agreed that a global day of prayer for peace would take place each year on the Sunday closest to September 21 - the UN International Day of Peace.

The day of prayer for peace, launched by WCC in 2004, is one of the initiatives of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence.

The World Council of Churches is an ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948 that today brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 100 countries.