Mayor welcome at prayer event

Mayor Jim West still has a standing invitation to Friday’s Leadership Prayer Breakfast – an annual event that brings together hundreds of people who pray for the community and its political leaders.

West was scheduled to lead a prayer for those in local government, but the mayor declined the invitation after allegations of sexual abuse and impropriety surfaced against him earlier this month.

Organizers, however, hope he will change his mind.

“He’s still our mayor,” said Dale Strom, a member of the executive board of Leadership Northwest, the volunteer group that coordinates the annual breakfast.

“We’re all sinners,” said Strom, who also works for the city of Spokane. “Prayer is even more important when you’re in trouble.”

For the past 44 years, prayer has united a diverse group of pastors, business leaders, educators and others in the community during the annual Leadership Prayer Breakfast. More than 800 people are expected early Friday at the Spokane Convention Center. Together, they will turn to God as they seek healing for Spokane and support for local government officials.

Their prayers come at a tumultuous time for the Spokane community. West, who has taken a voluntary leave of absence, remains mired in a scandal involving allegations of sexual abuse against boys and using the trappings of his office to date young men. Although he has acknowledged visiting a gay chat line on the Internet, he denies any involvement in child molestations that allegedly happened in the 1970s.

“It’s been a shock to all of us. It’s been really tough,” said Rodney McAuley, pastor of Antioch Foursquare Church and chairman of the group that organizes the breakfast.

“At the same time, if there was ever an occasion when we needed to seek the Lord for his guidance and comfort, it is now.”

Previously called the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, the event changed its name to the Greater Spokane Leadership Prayer Breakfast about five years ago to emphasize its nonpartisanship. The gathering brings together people from various Christian denominations to pray for public officials, regardless of their political party or affiliation, McAuley said. Although the breakfast brings together a mostly Christian crowd, it’s not intended to be disrespectful to other faiths, McAuley emphasized.

“We are called as Christians to pray for those in authority,” he said.

The event is also a way to thank leaders in education, government and other organizations for their work and contribution to the community, said John Repsold, pastor of Fourth Memorial Church in Spokane.

“We seek the blessing of Almighty God, through his son Jesus Christ, upon the efforts of those officials to maintain the Spokane region as a decent and caring place to live and as a morally just community,” according to the executive board’s description of the Leadership Prayer Breakfast.

Despite the allegations leveled against West, organizers want him to come. “He is still welcome,” McAuley stressed. And even if he doesn’t show up at the breakfast, people will continue to pray for him, he said.

In a memo sent to city employees after the newspaper reported the allegations, West asked people to pray on his behalf.

“Since my cancer I’ve taken to prayer and believe it has healing power,” the mayor wrote in a May 5 e-mail. “Please pray for me, the rest of your leaders, the City and our community.”

Dozens of local leaders also have been invited to come as guests to Friday’s breakfast. Among those scheduled to attend are Spokane police Chief Roger Bragdon; Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke; Whitworth College President Bill Robinson; the Rev. Robert Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University; Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Brian Benzel; and representatives from Rep. Cathy McMorris’ office.

The theme of this year’s breakfast is “Creativity in the Marketplace” and will feature author and radio program host Ravi Zacharias as the keynote speaker.

A native of India, Zacharias has given the main address at the National Day of Prayer in Washington, D.C., and has twice spoken at the annual Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations in New York. He also has addressed writers of South Africa’s peace accord, military officers at the Lenin Military Academy and the Center for Geopolitical Strategy in Moscow, as well as the Peruvian Parliament and the Cabinet of Peru’s former president, Alberto Fujimori. He is the founder and president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, which is based in Atlanta.

In addition to Zacharias’ keynote address, the breakfast will include prayers led by people in the community:

“Paula Cullen, executive director of Life Services of Spokane, will lead the prayer for families.

“Michael Jones, East Valley School District’s superintendent, will say one for schools.

“Brandon O’Malley from McMorris’ office will pray for state and national government.

“Daniel Wong, an analyst for the city of Spokane, will ask God to bless people in local government.

The program will be emceed by KXLY-TV news anchor Robyn Nance.

Organizers of the prayer breakfast hope the event will promote the “message of Jesus Christ” while encouraging “courageous conversations” among those in attendance, McAuley said.

“It’s important for the community to be unified,” said Strom, a member of Eastpoint Church in Spokane Valley. “We need to all work together to bring about healing and restoration.”