AUGUSTA — Representatives of more than a dozen local religious groups offered prayer and song Tuesday night in an effort “to rise above the rancor” of the recent presidential election.

More than 90 people listened and sang in the sanctuary of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church during the interfaith service, which was called “We the People Rise up Singing: A Multi-faith Service of Healing, Hope and Unity.”

Safety pins in a bowl are available for people to take and wear Tuesday during a multi-faith service of healing, hope and unity sponsored by Capital Area Multi-faith Association at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Augusta. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

The Rev. Carie Johnsen, of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church, opens a multifaith service of healing, hope and unity Tuesday sponsored by Capital Area Multi-faith Association at Johnsen's church in Augusta. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

The Rev. Carie Johnsen, of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church, lights candles Tuesday as Claire Cline, of the Spiritual Assembly of Baha'is, does a reading to open the multifaith service of healing, hope and unity sponsored by Capital Area Multi-faith Association at Johnsen's church in Augusta. Representatives from several area faith communities took part in the event. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

“I’ve seen all the discontent after the election,” said Tracy McNaughton of Farmingdale. “I came to be uplifted and to gather with people from different faiths and learn some different hymns.”

Marty Soule of Readfield said this is a time when people need to be together. She normally wears brown, she said, but on Tuesday she had some purple on to symbolize her belief that “the red and the blue in this country need to come together.”

“These are challenging times,” she said. “There is a lot of pain from the election and a lot of pain that led to where the election went. I think we need to take care of everybody, and (in particular) people who might be endangered.”

Soule said gathering people from many different faiths is a good way to increase love and openness.

“I’m here to stay happy,” said Edda Thiele of Hallowell. “I’m here to remember to feel good.” Thiele also said she belonged to several choirs, so she came to sing. She added that she represents four religious traditions: Buddhist, Episcopalian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist.

The service was organized by the Rev. Carie Johnsen of the Unitarian Universalist church; Rabbi Erica Asch of Temple Beth El, and Pastor Maggie Edmondson of the Winthrop Center Friends Church.

It began with “Call to Prayer” from the Islamic tradition, and at one point, Rita Moran, representing Immanent Grove, part of the pagan tradition, introduced the song “Last Night I had the Strangest Dream.” She said, “It starts with middle ‘C,’ neither to the left nor the right.” Moran, who is also chairman of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee, said she wanted to dedicate the song to the men and women and children in Mosul, Iraq, who were not safe Tuesday night and who did not know when they would be safe.

Claire Cline of the Spiritual Assembly of Baha’is, read from the Tablets of Baha’u’llah, saying, “Our hope is that the world’s religious leaders and the rulers thereof will unitedly arise for the reformation of this age and the rehabilitation of its fortunes. Let them, after meditating on its needs, take counsel together and, through anxious and full deliberation, administer to a diseased and sorely afflicted world the remedy it requireth.”

As Johnsen was readying the sanctuary and answering questions before the service, she said she hoped that people of deep differences could come together to recognize and celebrate common ground.

She said the week between the election and the service gave people “time to process their own reactions,” and now they could come together to celebrate their diversity and find what they have in common.

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