Leaders mark National Day of Prayer

WASHINGTON—Faith and political leaders gathered Thursday in the nation’s capital and across the country to mark the National Day of Prayer, an annual tradition dating back to 1952. Pastor Andrew Brunson, who was released by the Turkish government last year after almost two years in detention, joined National Day of Prayer President Ronnie Floyd and lawmakers for an event at the U.S. Capitol.

At a dinner for faith leaders at the Museum of the Bible the night before, Brunson, who was WORLD’s 2018 Daniel of the Year, credited prayer for his release. “But there was something greater that God was doing,” he said. “There was a tsunami of prayer crashing into Turkey.”

The White House also held a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden Thursday afternoon. “Since the founding of this nation, the American people have believed in prayer,” Vice President Mike Pence told attendees. “It is the thread that runs through every era of American history. In this White House, under this president, we believe in prayer.”

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was wounded during Saturday’s synagogue shooting in Poway, Calif., was an unnannounced guest at the event, which also fell on Holocaust Remembrance Day. He encouraged the president to reintroduce a “moment of silence” in the public schools. “Children [are] not growing up with values that our Founding Fathers started,” Goldstein said. “Something seems fundamentally wrong when there’s a generation of kids growing up doing what they’re doing.”

President Donald Trump also used the occasion to announce a new rule protecting healthcare workers with conscience and religious objections to performing abortions.