Vigil for Afghanistan, military members set
Planned by St. Luke’s United Methodist
An Ecumenical Prayer Service for Afghanistan will be 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum’s Reflecting Pool, 620 N Harvey.
The event was planned by St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, in coordination with others in the community. The prayer gathering will include people of different faith traditions united to pray for the safety of the Afghanistan people, particularly women and children.
Organizers said the prayer vigil also will be an opportunity to remember members of the U.S. military and their families.
St. Luke’s leaders said a member of their congregation, Becky Switzer, initially came to them with the idea for the vigil.
“When all these things started happening — goodness knows we’ve faced so much in the last couple of weeks — my heart really goes out to the women who are going to go back in the darkness, it appears” Switzer said Monday.
“I just felt like we need to pray for our sisters and brothers because we can’t do anything else for them. As much as we want to help, there’s nothing we can do but pray together, so that’s what we’re doing.”
Switzer said she discussed the idea with the Rev. Bob Long, St. Luke’s senior pastor, and he thought it was a great idea.
“”It’s rather organic. It’s a very quiet time for us to come together and pray for everything has been affected — not only for the girls and women — but for our military service people that we’ve lost but also for the victims of (Hurricane) Ida.”