As the solemn organ music filled the sanctuary, local residents with aching hearts gathered together at a prayer service at Vienna Presbyterian Church last Thursday, to pray for an uncertain future and for protection of U.S. troops. Vienna Presbyterian was one of many area churches to hold special services as the war began in Iraq.
"I don't know what your experience was like, but mine was very surreal," said pastor Peter James on watching the opening strikes on television.
Parishioners found comfort in singing the hymns "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" and "On Eagle's Wings," which called for protection and guidance from harm. A litany of prayer adapted from Psalm 22 reminded parishioners that God was stronger and bigger than the war in Iraq.
"I really wanted to be with my spiritual family, asking for God's guidance and pondering the things we can't know, together," said Oakton resident Alexandra MacCracken. "The only thing that's clear to me is that I want God's hand in this..I really feel it's time to unite as a country."
On the other side of the prayer service's program was a list of 37 loved ones who are away from home. They represented all armed forces divisions, with nine in Kuwait, and six in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. They were sons, daughters, uncles, brothers, a grandmother, neighbors and fiancees.
"This is where you come when you're in troubled times," said Vienna resident Susan Christ, on why she came to the evening's prayer service. "You pray and know that God is with us."
"We're praying for our country," said 12-year-old Tommy Lohrmann of Vienna, who was there with his mother, Paula, younger brother, Arthur, and younger sister. "In some ways, it's sort of frightening, the way they talk about Iraq having biological and chemical weapons."
As a meditation, James asked parishioners to not let fear overcome them. He recalled a story of a child at a fair, who saw people enter a haunted house but couldn't figure out how they got out.
"We know that we're going in, but we don't know when we're coming out," James said. "It's just a scary time."
Yet James reassured parishioners to be people of faith, not fear.
"We believe that perfect love casts out fear...We are not people of fear, we are people of faith. Psalm 23. Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me," James quoted.