(RNS) — As the nation awaits the results of Election Day, some houses of worship are opening their doors for prayer and faith leaders are gathering in online prayer sessions.
In the nation’s capital and far beyond it, people across faith traditions and across the political aisle are gathering for prayer this week as Americans head to the ballot box for the 2024 presidential election after a long campaign season that saw bitter partisan battles and revealed a closely divided electorate.
“We are such a nation divided, and this division and this polarization is even more than the political differences,” said the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, canon theologian for Washington National Cathedral, in an interview on Saturday (Nov. 2). “People have begun to see the other as the other, and that’s not who we’re supposed to be.”
The cathedral, which has espoused an initiative it calls “A Better Way” to help Americans listen to and learn from each other, is hosting services on Election Day and the next day that can be accessed online and in person.
“We’ve seen the violence of words, we’ve seen the violence of people demonizing one another, and the inhumanity of it all,” said Douglas. “ …