NATCHEZ — Small crowds throughout a rainy afternoon prayed fervently for their community and their nation Thursday, the designated National Day of Prayer.

The Rev. James Brooks, pastor of Greater St. James Baptist Church, took the lead and set the tone with music, Bible verses, encouraging words and prayer.

“It’s a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer,” Brooks said.

The sanctuary was open air, set up on the spacious grounds of Memorial Park, corner of Main and Rankin streets, with ancient oak trees as the canopy.

A table with white cloth, a plain wooden cross and a few Easter lilies provided the only religious symbols at the site. However, Rechelle Brooks, granddaughter of James Brooks, reminded the crowd of God’s presence as she sang “The Eye of the Sparrow.”

“I sing because I’m happy; I sing because I’m free. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me,” she sang.

The Rev. T.D. Lee, associate pastor at St. James, said that every day should be prayer day. Further, he said prayer should be lifted in unity and brotherhood.

“We cannot say ‘our Father’ unless we call one another brother and sister,” Lee said.

James Brooks agreed. “Prayer is always in order. God is in charge, and there is nothing like being in a relationship with him and being changed from the old and the new.”

For Nancy Hungerford, who attended early in the six hours of consecutive 30-minute prayer services, promoting unity is a positive result of such community-wide programs.

“It encourages me as a director of a Christian agency to see people from throughout the community coming together and humbling themselves in prayer,” she said.

Hungerford, director of Natchez Children’s Home Services, said prayers for requests but also for thanks are always in order. “And that was what was going on there,” she said.

The Rev. Doug Wright, pastor at Community Chapel Church of God, focused the crowd on the blessings and shortcomings of America and asked for prayers both to give thanks for blessings and to ask for revival of the nation.

“The answer for America is found in the churches, in God’s people,” Wright said. “I want us to humble ourselves before God … and ask the Lord to revive this land.”

The crowd formed a circle and prayed together, with different volunteers stepping up to pray for the church, for unity, for God’s people to be salt and light in society and for all to have hearts for mission and evangelism.”

The Rev. Robert Perkins, pastor of First Evangelical Methodist Church, organized the event for the Natchez Ministerial Alliance.

The official National Day of Prayer traces its beginnings to 1775, when the First Continental Congress set aside a day for national prayer.

The tradition continued when President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 called for a day when the nation would pray together.

In 1952, Congress established a National Day of Prayer. “It began as a time for people to gather on the steps of city halls and places like that to pray for the nation,” Perkins said.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a law making National Day of Prayer the first Thursday in May each year.