c. 2005 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ President Bush started the first full day of his second term in church, gathering with religious leaders on Friday (Jan. 21) at the Washington National Cathedral for an interfaith prayer service steeped in spiritual guidance and songs of praise.

Evangelist Billy Graham offered the opening prayer of the service and was followed by other Christian and Jewish clergy. In his sermon, the Rev. Mark Craig of Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas _ where Bush remains a member _ spoke of America as a nation of faith.

Graham, 86 and ailing from Parkinson’s disease and recent pelvic surgery, moved with the help of an aide and a walker. Participating in his ninth inaugural, Graham interpreted a heavenly influence in Bush’s re-election.

“Our Father, we acknowledge your divine help in the selection of our nation’s leaders throughout our history, and we believe that in your providence you have granted a second term of office to our president, George W. Bush, and our vice president, Richard Cheney,” he prayed.

Bush sat in the first pew with first lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne. Behind them sat Bush’s parents, former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, and twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara.

The president sang along with the hymns, pulling his glasses out of his pocket to read the second verse of the national anthem, which cited the country’s motto, “In God is our trust.”

He was joined under the stained glass windows and Gothic arches of the cathedral by some 2,000 congregants from religious and political circles.

Bishop Gilbert E. Patterson, presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ added to the prayers for the president, asking that God grant him and others in leadership “wisdom and strength to know and to do your will.”

Craig fashioned a sermon of basic spiritual advice and encouragement and called America a nation of sacrifice, compassion and faith.

“We believe that in difficult times, we will persevere,” he said. “God will lift us up.”

He compared the country’s perseverence to a boxer who rises from the floor of the ring after being punched.

“We always get back up off the canvas,” he said. “In the most difficult times, God has a way of opening a door. … God has a way of showing us a new path and a new direction. Ultimately that’s why we have a future.”

In a litany of prayers, several of the participating clergy took turns at the podium, representing the multicultural and interreligious flavor of the service. Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington prayed for the president, governors and mayors while Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, prayed for members of Congress and state legislators. Rabbi Morton Yolkut of Philadelphia prayed for the poor and the suffering.

The clergy who offered prayers at Thursday’s swearing-in also took part. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a United Methodist pastor from Houston, prayed for the nation’s justices and judges. The Rev. Luis Leon, rector of St. John’s Church near the White House, filled in for a sick Muslim chaplain and prayed for peace.

Along the president’s motorcade route, about a dozen protesters held signs decrying the war and abortion.

But inside the cathedral, prayers were uttered for harmony rather than dissension.

`Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning and pure manners,” prayed the Rev. Mary Sulerud, a liturgist at the cathedral.

“Save us from violence, discord and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way.”

KRE/JL END BANKS