Photos by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

John Ott, senior pastor of Parkway Wesleyan Church, prays Thursday with members of his congregation during the National Day of Prayer. People around the country were asked to pray for America — while keeping personal politics on the sidelines.

Chester Jones (second from left) and Timothy Corbett end Thursday's prayer session with a reading from the Bible.

Members of Parkway Wesleyan Church in Roanoke County break into small groups and take individual turns praying aloud Thursday.

Promising to pray for their government leaders without being critical, about 60 people stood around an American flag planted on a hill, held hands and bowed their heads outside Parkway Wesleyan Church on Thursday.

"It's one thing to complain about them. It's another to pray for them," said Senior Pastor John Ott, leader of the evangelical Christian congregation in Northeast Roanoke County.

Under a bright blue sky with just enough breeze to keep the flag fluttering picturesquely, the gathering was among an estimated 35,000 such services held at noon around the country in observation of the 57th National Day of Prayer, the intended focus of which is to ask blessings and guidance for America.

President Bush marked the occasion at the White House, saying the nation celebrates its freedoms -- including religious diversity and exercising that right in public. He said he hopes there will one day be an "International Day of Prayer" that will be "a chance for people of faith around the world to stop at the same time to praise an almighty."

Parkway Wesleyan members hung red, white and blue balloons and handed out Election Day-style stickers that read, "National Day of Prayer. I prayed on the mountain."

True to guidelines from a volunteer task force based in Washington, D.C., Ott counseled against mixing personal politics with prayers that are supposed to be nonpartisan. "We just want to ask that America stay the kind of nation that God can bless." Acknowledging the current presidential campaign and other elections on the horizon, Ott diplomatically advised those assembled to pray that "the elections turn out as God wants them."

Carolyn Cecil, retired after three decades of teaching world geography in high school and middle school, said she's a member of Parkway Wesleyan's "Prayer Warriors," a group of about 50 members who regularly beseech God on behalf of the nation's security and its troops' safety, among other things.

"I do think prayers help. We haven't been attacked by terrorists in this country since 2001, and I don't think that's just by chance," she said.

Jerri Carnes, a retired meat cutter and Parkway Wesleyan member, said she attended the service to ask that "God's blessings come down on our country."

The National Day of Prayer was established in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Truman. The event's national task force chose a theme: "Prayer, America's Strength and Shield."

Ott spoke for only five minutes before directing the congregation to break into groups of four or so, keep holding hands, and take individual turns praying aloud. They could be heard addressing a wide variety of themes, such as protecting U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and inspiring local government to build safer roads.

Meanwhile, Ott held the 8-foot flagpole in his right hand and a Bible in his left, his head bowed in silence.

Cecil said she's confident the prayers for U.S. armed forces are answered affirmatively "with angels on their right shoulder, their left shoulder and in back of them." To be sure, there's no guarantee that some won't die. In those cases, she prays that, "God will take them up to be with him in heaven."