Members of the Butler Clergy Network have planned for a Zoom interfaith service of healing for the community and nation set for 7 p.m. Thursday. Response readings and reflective times with music are meant to bring people peace.

One of the most contentious presidential elections is over. With the ballots being counted, a group of local clergy is hoping to quiet the shouting as well.

The Butler Clergy Network will stage what it terms an interfaith Zoom healing service, “For Such a Time as This,” at 7 p.m. Thursday.

One of the network's members, the Rev. Kimberly Van Driel, pastor of First English Lutheran Church, 241 N. Main St., said, “The purpose for the worship service, it's a service of healing to lift up the nation and ourselves in what we feel will be an utterly tense time following the election.”

The Rev. Mary Kitchen, pastor of East Butler Presbyterian Church, 900 Randolph Ave., East Butler, echoed that sentiment.

Kitchen said, “We're concerned. We know there's a lot of anxiety regarding the election.

“Whoever wins, it's going to be a stressful time,” she said.

Other than being, perhaps, an hour long, the remote service's details still are being determined.

Kitchen said, “That's what we are planning right now. We've made available to the community many different traditions.

“We are developing a very meaningful service that people can access for peace,” she said.

The Rev. Verna Call, retired pastor of St. John's United Church of Christ in Evans City, said, “We're hoping to bring people some peace and a connection with their faith in a difficult time.”

Cantor Michal Gray-Schaffer of B'nai Abraham synagogue, 519 N. Main St., said the service will involve readings and music by local clergy and musicians, some live and some prerecorded.

The service will be ecumenical and interfaith, said Call.

“It will be in three parts,” she said. “Lifting up the nation, lifting up our churches and lifting up ourselves.”

“Some of it will be recorded and some of it will be live from one of our churches,” Call said.

“There will be response readings and reflective times with music,” she said.

And a little reflection in the aftermath of a bitter presidential campaign is what members of the network think is what's needed.

“It's pretty obvious that this has been a fractious election cycle. Many have commented how polarized our society is now,” said Gray-Schaffer.

She added, “For three-quarters of a year, we have been anticipating that this will not be the easiest of elections.”

“Liturgical committee meetings started in January, and we already anticipated that at least 50 percent of people would be really upset by the results of the election,” she said.

The Butler Clergy Network came together in the wake of the Oct. 27, 2018, mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that left 11 dead.

Cantor Michal said the 13 interfaith clergy members who came together to plan the candlelight vigil at B'nai Abraham decided to keep meeting regularly. She said, “Afterward, we decided we didn't want our fellowship to end, and we saw the need for an interfaith clergy group.”

The group meets remotely once a month and attracts about 20 clergy.

To join the Zoom service by phone, call 1-301-715-8592 and use Webinar ID 886 5600 8401.

To join online, go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88656008401 and use l 1-301-715-8592 and use Webinar ID 886 5600 8401.