Orthodox Prayer Service for the UN?

Shudder. Double shudder. Is this kind of thing typical?

NEW YORK, NY [OCA Communications] — For the sixth consecutive year, the Joint Commission of the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas [SCOBA] and the Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches in America [SCOOCH] will sponsor an Orthodox Prayer Service and Reception for the United Nations Community at Saint Vartan Armenian Cathedral, 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY, at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 .

Members of the UN community will join hundreds of area Orthodox Christians for the service, which will be celebrated in the tradition of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The service will include special prayers of supplication for world peace.

In honor of his distinguished service as the UN's two-term Secretary-General, H. E. Mr. Kofi Annan will be presented with a certificate of recognition by the Joint Commission for his years of dedicated service. His Grace, Bishop David of the Coptic Orthodox Church Archdiocese of North America, the event's hosting prelate, will offer an address on behalf of the Joint Commission.

The public is invited to attend the service and reception.

For more information, please contact the Coptic Orthodox Archdiocese of North America at 973/857-0078 or by e-mail at UNdayofprayer@nacopts.org.

Again, whether to laugh or cry? Yes, we should pray for all world leaders (though the UN does not have and IMHO should not have any governmental authority over its sovereign member nations). But a joint prayer service to honor this useless (and often pagan) body? And to specifically hail the "distinguished service" of Kofi Annan, the man who presided over the Oil-for-Food scandal? Gadzooks!

At least they didn't hold it in the UN "Meditation Room":