Church offers services of healing for the nation on Election Day

Messiah Lutheran Church is offering a respite from the election season’s fervor at two separate prayer services to be held at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday.

Called “Healing of the Nation,” the 30-minute services will be identical in content featuring music, prayer, scripture readings — and will be nonpolitical in nature. All the public is invited to attend.

Pastor Peter Braafladt said the idea for a healing service was a response to what he and his staff sensed within the community and their own congregation — that the anxiety and divisiveness of political campaigns has spilled over into many other areas of people’s lives.

“We’ve observed some low-level stress and anxiety, a sense that this has been a long drudge to the end,” said Braafladt. “And that this isn’t just going to go away after we elect somebody. We want to do what unifies us in faith.”

“It is our deep hope that this service can remind us of what brings us together, rather than what divides us, and that we can re-learn to love each other in spite of differences and regardless of the election’s outcome,” he said.

The services will have some contemplative moments, candle lighting and opportunities for attendees to participate. Each individual state in the union will be named in prayer.

Messiah Lutheran is at 905 N.W. 94th St. in west Hazel Dell. More information: www.messiahvancouver.org