This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

It was gray and lightly snowing Friday at 9 a.m. as about 70 anxious worshippers — mostly women — quietly filled the pews at Salt Lake City's First Unitarian Church for an interfaith prayer service.

The historic sanctuary was hushed; the mood somber.

"As we gather for this inauspicious inauguration, it is not an easy day," Unitarian Universalist minister Tom Goldsmith began. "Eight years ago, our spirits soared in exultation. We couldn't imagine that we would now be on the edge of despair, worried and concerned."

Heads nodded.

"The fact that we are together ... will carry us far [in the years to come]," Goldsmith said. "We promise to meet together, march together ... and keep a vigilant eye on justice — eco-justice and social justice."

He then invited audience members to share their prayers for the years ahead.

When she first heard of Donald Trump's presidential election, the first woman said, she felt "mostly anger."

Seeing all the people "trying to resist," she said, "now I feel peace."

Another woman said her hope is that Americans "can hold onto the morality and democracy we are so proud of."

Others mentioned "retaining energy we feel now" and "talking to each other — those we agree with and those we don't."

Several area clergy members offered their own divine appeals, listing the need for unity, humility and working for the common good.

The Rev. Steve Klemz, pastor at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, prayed for "people without documents, the poor and those who suffer injustice."

"We are connected in hope," Klemz said, "which imagines and acts for a future we don't see now."

Imam Shuaib Din of the Utah Islamic Center in Sandy beseeched God to bless the population with understanding, while making the country "a safer place" and helping it avoid "unnecessary wars and bloodshed."

"Save us," the imam pleaded, "from words that hurt."

The day after Trump's unexpected victory, the Rev. Patty Willis, who leads the South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society in Cottonwood Heights, said "it felt like we were soldiers after a battle we didn't win — feeling anger, inescapable pain and fear."

Going forward will require, she said, "perseverance and resilience."

And what of the victors?

"We call out to the revelers," she said, and ask, "Will you join us in prayer?"

The service was punctuated by moments of silence, collective sighs, a poem about nuclear war, and a discordant, melancholy arrangement of "America the Beautiful" — a contrast to the triumphant rendition of the song by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Washington, D.C., just moments before Trump took the oath of office.

At the end of the hourlong Salt Lake City service, many of the listeners — newly inspired by evocations for a better tomorrow — adjourned to an adjacent hall for coffee and conversation. Nonbeleivers, Christians and Muslims greeted and embraced one another.

By then, the sun had come out.

Twitter: @religiongal