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Pre-election Costa Mesa prays for ‘healing’

Charlene Ashendorf prays at the Presbyterian Church of the Convenant on Monday. The church hosted a nonpartisan prayer session one day before the mid-term elections.
Charlene Ashendorf prays at the Presbyterian Church of the Convenant on Monday. The church hosted a nonpartisan prayer session one day before the mid-term elections.
(SCOTT SMELTZER / Daily Pilot)
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Save for the faint whir of Fairview Road traffic, the scene was quiet and serene inside the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant on Monday afternoon.

Lynell Brooks faced the altar, taking a few moments in the Costa Mesa church to pause and reflect on the state of her city before Election Day.

She was among a few city residents who took up the church’s offer to take part in a nonpartisan prayer, no electioneering allowed, in the quiet sanctuary.

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Brooks said she hopes all of Costa Mesa can come together to solve the city’s pressing issues, like aiding the homeless and those who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

“I believe that prayer changes things,” she said.

Councilwoman Wendy Leece, who is prevented by term limits from running for reelection and is vying instead for the Orange County Water District, helped organize the daylong event. She thanked the Rev. Tim McCalmont for opening his church’s doors for prayer.

“It always helps, in a big project campaign like this, to take some moments to reflect on how I can be part of the solution rather than the problem,” she said. “Maybe the problem needs to be solved by bigger forces than I am.”

Councilwoman Sandy Genis, who is not up for reelection this year, also stopped by the church for about 90 minutes, using the afternoon to read passages from her Bible.

“It’s a good reminder,” she said. “It’s time to calm down, refocus and focus on what’s really important.”

Genis then referred to a passage from the book of Psalms: “Keep watch over the door of my lips.”

Words for everyone to live by, she said.

Longtime community volunteer Charlene Ashendorf visited the church after reading about Leece’s event on Facebook.

This election period hasn’t been “a season of love,” but one of “mistrust and lies,” she said.

What Costa Mesa now needs, Ashendorf said, is “time for healing.”

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