National Day of Prayer service is 7 p.m. Thursday downtown Central Park gazebo

Lou Whitmire, Mansfield News Journal
·2 min read
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The second annual Prayer Parade will highlight the National Day of Prayer Thursday downtown.

The parade will begin at 6:30 p.m. from the five-way light at Marion Avenue and Park Avenue West, following an hour of music, food and preparation.

The service, which will begin about 7 p.m. at the Gazebo in Central Park, will feature music and prayers for local and national leaders, first responders and schools and families, according to a news release from Pastor Paul Lintern.

The parade is coordinated by Amanda Nichols, director of Project One and the ARC Empowerment Center, 378 Park Ave. West, a culmination of a vision she had nearly 20 years ago.

Worshippers flocked to downtown Mansfield to celebrate the National Day of Prayer in May 2023. This year's event will be held Thursday beginning at 6:30 p.m. with a parade.
Worshippers flocked to downtown Mansfield to celebrate the National Day of Prayer in May 2023. This year's event will be held Thursday beginning at 6:30 p.m. with a parade.

“Last year’s event was a great joy and good mix of praise and worship, festivity and solemnity," Nichols said. "It celebrated the victory won for all in Jesus, the call to be a nation in prayer before God, and the opportunity to worship in a nation that protects and cherishes that right. This year will build on that first year’s event.”

Congregations, church groups, Christian schools and businesses will enter the parade with floats, decorated vehicles, walking groups and musicians, Nichols said.

“We want people to enter the parade without agenda except lifting up praise to the Lord,” she said.

Worship coordinator is the Rev. El Akuchie, who with Ben Mutti has led the Richland Community Prayer Network for more than a quarter-century.

“After a joyful parade, we plan a time of fervent prayer, in many areas, by several church leaders. This is an event for young and old, traditional and contemporary, for all Americans to lift up this time and place to the Lord,” Akuchie said. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. And remember, Mansfield is Godsfield.”

The National Day of Prayer has its roots in proclamations by Presidents George Washington and Abe Lincoln, and at various times by others presidents, but became an annual observance in 1952 when President Harry Truman responded during the Korean War.

lwhitmir@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Akuchie is worship coordinator for Mansfield National Day of Prayer