The Council for Global Ancestral Reverence will hold its seventh annual Global Ancestral Prayer Circle online on 31 October 2026. The gathering opens Ancestral Souls Rising, a three-day programme bringing African diaspora elders together for prayer and discussion.
The Saturday session is advertised for noon to 3pm Eastern Daylight Time, equivalent to 4pm to 7pm in London and 5pm to 8pm in Nigeria. Registered participants will receive access through a private YouTube channel, alongside information about the programme’s rituals and activities.
A Transition Summit follows on 1 and 2 November. The organisers describe it as a forum for reflection, community development and discussion about the future, drawing on ancestral knowledge.
The event listing names Iyabeji Dr Cathy Royal, Ohen Nedra T. Williams, Iya Wanda Ravernell-Stewart and Iya Jennifer Dillard as conveners. It invites participation alongside women and men of Egungun societies and says the gathering has the blessings of Yoruba scholar Awise Wande Abimbola.
The council describes itself as a consortium of spiritual practitioners, artists and cultural leaders. Its stated purpose combines ancestral remembrance with public and private activities addressing concerns within African diaspora communities.
In an announcement carried by BlackPressUSA on 19 October, the council said members and 21 priests would lead prayers from locations including Africa, Portugal and the United States. The announcement identifies participants across the US, from Maryland to the Bay Area.
The council’s account links the annual ritual to bereavements during the coronavirus pandemic, when some people died without family members present or funerals conducted according to their traditions. It presents the gathering as remembrance for those who died and support for people still mourning.
“Our elders have, for many generations, known the power of prayer, ritual and breath,” the council said in the announcement.
The announcement also names Manbo Charlene Desir in Florida, Nana Sula Spirit in Louisiana and Baba Obafemi Feyemi among the council’s members. It describes the elders as all being over 60.
The programme also connects remembrance with contemporary civic concerns. The council has encouraged voting and invoked the work of US civil-rights campaigners John Lewis and Fannie Lou Hamer. Its November discussions are described as being inspired by “The Blueprint”, an Afro-Beat song by UyiosaEl.
A record of the 2020 Ancestral Souls Rising gathering remains on artist and curator Tracy Brown’s website. Brown describes curating a global gathering of African traditionalist leaders that year, intended as a Pan-African response to stress and loss during the pandemic. That programme ran from 31 October to 8 November.
Egungun traditions connect ancestral remembrance with the arts of dress and performance. The Cleveland Museum of Art describes Yoruba masquerade costumes as a bridge between the living and ancestral spirits. Its twentieth-century example combines locally produced and imported textiles, including indigo-dyed cottons, damasks, velvets and embroidery.
The council’s current organiser page lists tickets from US$24.25. The booking page identifies the gathering as online and states that payments are non-refundable. Registration is available through the Council for Global Ancestral Reverence’s Eventbrite listing for Ancestral Souls Rising ’26.
Illustration: Egúngún Masquerade Dance Costume, 1900s, Yoruba-style maker, Nigeria. Cleveland Museum of Art, gift of Katherine C. White, 1976.188. This object is not part of the advertised programme and does not show its participants or rituals. Source, CC0. Prepared landscape and social images resize the photograph with the whole costume retained.
