AUGUSTA – The Maine National Guard will sponsor its annual Interfaith Prayer Breakfast at the Augusta Armory on Western Avenue. The buffet-style breakfast and ecumenical worship program will be held on the National Day of Prayer, Thursday, May 1, from 7 to 8:30 a.m.

Due to the large turnout expected, breakfast will be served beginning at 6:45. The cost of the meal will be collected at the door. There will be a brief ecumenical program with clergy of various faiths participating after the meal.

Special guest speaker will be Kevin Belmonte, author and historian living in York. His extended family is a literary one, including cousins Robert Frost, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Richard Henry Dana.

Belmonte received the John Pollock Award for Christian Biography in 2003. He is author of the book “William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity,” a biography of the English statesman who overcame incredible odds to bring about the end of slavery and slave trade. Belmonte was the lead historical consultant for the motion picture “Amazing Grace: The William Wilberforce Story.”