On Thursday, beginning at 12:05 p.m., the Demopolis Christian Ministers Association will sponsor the National Day of Prayer at the gazebo in the city park in downtown Demopolis.

“Basically, it will be a group of people associated with the ministerial association who will offer prayers for various aspects of our daily lives,” said the Rev. John David Barnes, the rector at Trinity Episcopal Church. “Some people will have prayers for schools, and some people will have prayers for business. Some people will have prayers for government, and various people will do different things.”

For people of faith, prayer is a means of opening a means of communication with God.

“For those of us who are believers, to be able to talk to Him is very important,” said the Rev. Lacornia Harris, the pastor of New Aimwell Missionary Baptist Church and the president of the DCMA. “There are some passages in the Bible that tell us that we have not because we ask not. [Prayer] is a form of us asking Him to do some things, a form of saying to Him that we appreciate Him, thanking Him for what He has already done and what he is going to do.

“I think when one prays a general prayer, that’s fine, but I also think that there ought to be occasions where you pray for specific things, and in this situation, we are going to pray for specific things: education, for the country, for businesses and things like that.”

The power of prayer is strong when one person prays, but when several gather to prayer, the power increases exponentially.

“In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus said, ‘Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am also,’” said the Rev. Mickey Green, the pastor of the Church Aflame. “If I have the Holy Spirit in me, you have the Holy Spirit in you, and we come together to pray, then there’s more power there. If three people come together, if 100 come together, we all bring Him with us, and it increases the effectiveness and the power of prayer.”

This celebration will be the fourth consecutive National Day of Prayer event in Demopolis after the event was not observed in 2005.

Created in 1952 through a joint resolution in Congress, the National Day of Prayer is held on the first Thursday in May.