Say a little prayer

Tony Dodero

At an early morning gathering Thursday at St. Michael and All Angels

Episcopal Church in Corona del Mar, members of the Newport-Mesa Irvine

Interfaith Council took in a little bit of breakfast and some

inspirational words and spiritual messages as part of the fifth annual

National Day of Prayer.

The breakfast, which was attended by 34 congregations and about 200

people, united the wide spectrum of faithful in the Interfaith Council

and their different flavors of theology with an array of city, school and

community leaders.

With the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the subsequent war in Afghanistan

and the current Middle East crisis looming large, many have expressed the

need to pray even more.

This National Day of Prayer, established by an act of Congress to

encourage Americans to pray, found those many in Newport-Mesa on Thursday

celebrating the occasion by holding prayer vigils outside of City Hall

and other spots around the community.

The morning breakfast at St. Michael and All Angels took on the tone

and theme of religious unity.

“There is a feeling that the need for peace is more urgent,” said the

Rev. Don Oliver, president of the Interfaith Council and a chaplain at

Hoag Hospital. “Spirituality is the way to return to those basic roots

and to realize who we are.”

In line with the Day of Prayer theme for this year, “America United

Under God,” the crowd was treated to spiritual readings by Rabbi Richard

Steinberg of Irvine’s Temple Shir ha’malot, Imam Moustafa Qazwini of the

Costa Mesa Islamic Education Center, Jamie Day of the Newport Beach Stake

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Rev. Barbara

Stewart of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church of Costa Mesa, the Rev.

Karen Stoyanoff of the Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church in

Costa Mesa, and Msgr. Daniel Murray of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic

Church in Newport Beach.

In addition, Daily Pilot columnist Peter Buffa emceed the event, and

the crowd was treated to musical renditions of “America the Beautiful”

and “God Bless America” from local pianist Jim Roberts.

The keynote speaker was former Green Beret and now poet James Bruce

Joseph Sievers of Huntington Beach.

Sievers, who has been awarded the George Washington Medal of Honor, is

known for his poem titled “An American in Love with is Country.”

Sievers, who said he has been nominated to be the next poet laureate

of the United States, recited his poetry with a patriotic fervor that

captivated the crowd, in particular one that he wrote for comedian and

actor Bob Hope that ends with this line:

“For a world desperately needing love, thank God we still have Hope.”

* TONY DODERO is the editor. He can be reached ato7

tony.dodero@latimes.comf7 or by phone at (949) 574-4258.