PHILADELPHIA - When Bishop Alden A. Gaines withdrew to his prayer closet two weekends ago, his spiritual wings began flapping hard.

For his beloved Philadelphia Eagles. "O, God, let them win this time," Gaines prayed. "So many people will be disappointed if they don't win this time."

A man of the cloth thinks it's OK to pray for victory in a mere football game, even if it is the Super Bowl?

"Of course it's OK. You can pray for anything you love and you care about," said Gaines, who leads Consolation Baptist Church in South Philadelphia. "In sports, there's always a winner, and I believe God has a hand in deciding everything, even that."

Before Birds fans begin bombarding heaven's gate with pleas for a W, they should know that not all clergy would cheer.

"I steer away from the victory theme," said the Rev. J. David Hoke, the Eagles' team chaplain, who runs a chapel service for players and coaches every game day.

"It's great to pray for God's blessing and favor, but I don't think God is rooting for a particular team," said Hoke, a Southern Baptist who pastors New Horizons Community Church in Voorhees, N.J. "He's interested in the players and their welfare and their lives, not in who wins the Super Bowl."

Scoreboard prayers, however tempting, are a bit out of bounds, others agreed.

"We should reserve our prayers for serious things," said Rabbi Lisa Malik, head of Suburban Jewish Community Center-B'nai Aaron, a Conservative synagogue in Havertown, Pa. A victory prayer does not appear to violate Jewish law, she said, but it risks "bothering God" and "trivializing a blessing."

Prayers in Philadelphia for an Eagles win aren't "going to coerce God, because probably there's someone up in New England praying for the Patriots - and what, do they cancel each other out?" said Camden Catholic Bishop Joseph Galante. Partisan pleas demean God by making him "a marionette master pulling strings."

Galante a major Eagles fan, sported a Donovan McNabb jersey at a diocesan pep rally before the Falcons game. He led a prayer that beseeched the Virgin Mary, who is "victorious" in heaven, to protect the Eagles "on the field and off, and help them to use their talents, both physical and intellectual, to the best of their ability, so that they may experience victory, too."

His pep prayer was based on the belief that any gridiron triumph would result from human effort, not divine intervention, Galante said in an interview.

"If you use your God-given talents to the best of your ability, your chances of winning are greatly increased. God gives us abilities and doesn't ordinarily intervene in human affairs like a sporting contest."

The Rev. C. Matthew Hudson, pastor of St. Paul's Baptist Church in North Philadelphia, said God's mission is about love and "doesn't have anything to do with competition."

"Some things don't reach the throne of God, but bring comfort to our own people," he said. "If you pray for victory, those are just words you're saying... that don't even reach heaven because they have nothing to do with helping people."

Nelson Dorny, a Mormon bishop, leads youth groups at the Delaware County, Pa., church that Eagles coach Andy Reid and his family attend. Dorny advises his charges that it's OK "to pray that you or your team may play to its ability and not have injuries."

To pray for a W, though, "is like two children asking their father, 'Let me be the winner,' " Dorny said. Just as parents don't want to show favoritism, "I find God is an impartial and fair father who wants best for all of us."

Scripture teaches that God "will respond to our prayers if they are appropriate, and intervenes in certain situations," Dorny said. If one team has been winning too much, God might intervene "because they need to learn something. I suppose that's possible," he said. "But if I were a betting man, I'm not sure I'd bet on it."