VALLEY — A National Day of Prayer ceremony held Thursday during the noon hour at Veterans Memorial Park had a theme of unity, a sense of oneness and coming together as a country.

The National Day of Prayer is annually observed in the United States on the first Thursday in May. It has common roots with the celebration of Thanksgiving, both were formally established with national proclamations. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln called for a day of Thanksgiving to be held in the fall of the year. In 1952, President Harry Truman declared that a National Day of Prayer take place in the spring.

Rev. Tim Bass, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church, Valley, opened the local service by saying that our country was experiencing a spiritual crisis and that sincere, heartfelt prayer was the only remedy.

“God is the only One who can bring unity, harmony and oneness to America,” he said. “We can look only to Him in prayer.”

Rev. Bobby Elliott, pastor of the Langdale Congregational Christian Church, said that God was calling His church to unify upon the authority of the Bible and the centrality of Jesus Christ.

“God is our greatest need in America,” he said. “We should walk in unity, harmony and oneness so His church personifies, calls and leads America to unity.”

Ricky Cannon of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in northern Chambers County said that God’s power is the one force that can unite families, work places and communities in America.

“Spiritual energy leads to forgiveness, reconciliation, healing and unity,” he said. “Families, places of work and communities should look to Jesus Christ, our Prince of Peace, to unite us.”

Gary Harris of Langdale Methodist Church said that every human being is made in the image of God.

“We each bear His image regardless of the color of our skin or the uniqueness of our ethnicity,” he said. “In God alone, we unify and live in peace with one another, standing as one people against all racial and ethnic division, denouncing it as sin and not God’s will for us.”

Rev. Kent Pelton of the Lanett Nazarene Church cited the need for a great awakening in America.

“We need to wake up spiritually, agree clearly, unite visibly and pray extraordinarily for the next Great Spiritual Awakening,” he said. “Call upon God to bring a spiritual awakening now in America, shaping our country’s future, just as the Great Spiritual Awakenings in our past have shaped our spiritual heritage as a nation,”

To find out more about the National Day of Prayer Task Force or how to be more involved, go to www.nationaldayofprayer.org.