May 22, 2000
Religious leaders mark National Day of Prayer
___By Adelle Banks
___ Religion News Service
___ WASHINGTON (RNS)--Religious leaders and grass-roots community members gathered on Capitol Hill and at churches, state capitols and other venues across the nation May 4 to mark the National Day of Prayer by calling on God to help the country and its political officials.
___ The 49th annual observance at the Cannon House Office Building featured Protestant, Catholic and Jewish leaders taking turns at the microphone to offer prayers and exhort listeners to seek guidance from God in addressing the challenges in the nation and in their personal lives.
___ "We bless our food. We ask God to bless our missionaries and our pastor, but I dare say the vast majority of us do not ask God to bless us," said Bruce Wilkinson, founder and president of the Atlanta-based Walk Thru the Bible Ministries and keynote speaker at the daylong Washington event. "You need to ask God to bless you."
___ Wilkinson recalled the prayer of Jabez, the head of a family in Judah cited in the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles, and urged the audience to make it their own for 60 days from the prayer day to Independence Day.
___ Hundreds in the audience stood with him and prayed: "Oh, God, will you bless me indeed, enlarge my ministry, put your hand upon me and keep me from evil."
___ Shirley Dobson, chairman of the National Day of Prayer task force, said more than 20,000 prayer services were scheduled for the day. Among the locations for observances nationwide were prisons, hospitals and rest homes, she said.
___ Dobson said the event was recognized with official proclamations signed by President Clinton and 49 of the nation's 50 governors. The exception was Gov. Jesse Ventura of Minnesota, who for the second year in a row declined to do so.
___ "We hope next year, he'll soften a little bit and see the need for a prayer (day) in his state," she said.
___ Although many of the participants in the Washington observance were evangelical Christians, the opening prayer was given by a Catholic priest from the Archdiocese of Washington, and a rabbi from Chevy Chase, Md., blew on the shofar, a ram's horn used on special occasions, and read from Scripture.
___ Lloyd Ogilvie, Senate chaplain, led a prayer for members of Congress.
___ "Lord, touch the lives of the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate and create in them a desire to be filled with your Spirit so that they have supernatural power to lead this land," he said.
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