Congregation prays for soldiers’ safety
With the twinkling of 10 candles in the background and an American flag flanking his left, the Rev. Thomas R. Finnie asked attendants at a Thursday night prayer service to say aloud the names of those they know in the armed services. One by one, as attendants called out the names of those serving or prepared to serve, Rev. Finnie asked God to shield the soldiers and grant them special protection in this time of war.
At St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Uniontown, the “Service of Prayer for the World in Time of War” allowed area residents to come together, worship God and pray for those serving the nation.
As a beginning to his homily, Rev. Finnie remembered back to his childhood. “I said the ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ and was proud of myself,” he said. “I was proud to say ‘with liberty and justice for all’ with my hand on my heart.”
He defined liberty as the freedom to live one’s own life and justice as fairness and partiality.
Rev. Finnie, who told the congregation that for the past year he has watched as events leading up to the war unfold, said, “We ask is this a just war?” The answer, he said, is within God.
“And, sitting in a church pew in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, you are never going to be able to answer that question,” said Rev. Finnie. “God, himself, raises up leaders. He can tear down leaders, and he is in charge of the justice system.
“We can ask God tonight for justice,” Rev. Finnie added. “He will listen politely to you and then he will do what’s just. He will do what is right and not according to polls, to political parties or to geopolitical sanctions.”
Concerning the hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting in Iraq, Finnie said that people attended the service Thursday to ask God to do what is right and therefore to do justice for the soldiers.
“They are a heartbeat away from losing their lives, and we know it,” Rev. Finnie said.
During his sermon, he told the story of an Iraqi citizen who, having a wife and eight children to care for, sold his couch for $4 and his bed for $2.
“He clutched his money with glee and said, ‘I’ll be able to take care of my family for two weeks with this money,'” said Finnie. “There are human costs to this war. …Let there be no dancing on the graves of the vanquished among us who are fighting for an evil dictator and who got caught in the crossfire, just so they can put it on the news and say it was us. Those are people, and you do not dance on the graves of people.”
Although the service ended after the voices of the congregation rose in a joint singing of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” the praying continued for some.