Prayer event aims for unity

Leaders incorporate MLK holiday in effort to calm tensions

WASHINGTON — As a politically divided nation prepares to inaugurate a new president in the wake of a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a group of Christian leaders is hoping to ease tensions through prayer during three days of ecumenical, nonpartisan programming.

Using the slogan and social media tag #PeaceWithJustice, the effort aims to project spiritual unity and counter people’s feelings of helplessness with action during a time of high alert with thousands of troops securing the capital after the Jan. 6 violence, which has led to about 120 arrests.

The name of the gathering — held virtually because of the pandemic — is in part a nod to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s observation that “true peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” Details of the initiative were shared with The Associated

Press before its launch on the weekend when the country commemorates his birthday.

Leaders of the effort are incorporating the King holiday into their work, asking participants to use their Sunday messages to focus on “redoubling efforts to work together to address systemic racism and restore trust and integrity to our democratic system and institutions.”

Jim Wallis, founder of the Christian social justice group Sojourners and a lead organizer of the event, said he hoped to see the faithful “move beyond the emotions of anger and fear” and toward the moral truth of communal reconciliation.

“Prayer is action, in my view,” Wallis said.

After Monday’s federal holiday, the event continues Tuesday with a multidenominational Zoom prayer service. On Wednesday, when President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, participants plan a daylong chorus of testimony and other statements on Twitter in the hopes of restoring a sense of harmony to a transition of power that has been marred by violence.

Organizers have dubbed the 12-hour social media push a “thunderclap.” “Defending democracy for all Americans — no exceptions” is imperative for all people of faith, the group said on its website.

Prominent participants include Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Commissioner Kenneth G. Hodder, National Commander of the Salvation Army; and Barbara Williams-Skinner, co-convener of the National African American Clergy Network.

Williams-Skinner said she hopes the effort will become a model for further collaboration by people of faith across denominational boundaries.

Jim Wallis