By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Water was the theme Wednesday, but it wasn’t the waters of life.

Rather, well more than 100 people joined at Saints Peter and Paul Basilica to mourn the thousands of lives lost to the waters of the Asian tsunami of Dec. 26.

“God bless the little children, children of the world” sang about 45 children of the Rev. Doug Taylor’s Jesus Party as they walked to the basilica with snowflakes melting on their cheeks.

The multifaith community offering of prayers for the great flood’s victims and their survivors was solemn, but not without the hope a belief in God offers.

“Be happy, my friends,” encouraged Adam Meservier, a student at St. Peter and Sacred Heart School, in a poem of hope. “God joins us in our fight against misery.”

Earlier, Richard Frino reminded people of the scope of the devastation of the earthquake and the tsunami it spawned.

“The waters returned to the sea,” he noted, “taking with it whatever it wanted.”

Candles for the dead of 13 nations were lit one by one, often by people who had ties to a particular country, as Frino’s wife, Debra, thumped a heartbeat tattoo on a quiet drum.

“May our prayers rise to meet their souls,” Richard Frino urged at last beat of the drum as the final candle honoring the lost lives of Indonesia was ignited.

Then the soulful strings of three violins combined for “Midnight on the Water.”

Rabbi Hillel Katzir opened a series of prayers, chanting El Malch Rahamin, a Hebrew prayer that translates to “Oh God, full of mercy.”

When he finished, he spoke of people’s need “to know why the innocent suffer, why there is so much grief.”

“Help us,” he prayed, “and help the survivors. … Help all of us find our way back … and to never feel alone.”

As Sagaree Sengupta offered a Hindu prayer for those in her native India who perished, she filled with tears.

“The soul casts off old bodies,” she said, “and takes on new … The soul is impervious to water … The soul is eternal.”

Reading excerpts from The Great Litany of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, the Rev. Barbara Barth led people is asking the Lord to deliver all “From lightning and tempest; from earthquake, fire and flood, from plague, pestilence and famine.”

“What a blessed way to reach out to our brothers and sisters,” observed Tim Griffin before reading from the Baha’i book of prayers.

A choral group, the Crosstones, from Bates College sang “Many Waters,” with a repeating chorus that notes “Many waters cannot quench love.”

And the Saints of the Biscuits, the violin trio, returned to perform the traditional Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts.”

Gail Johnson, who organized the evening service, later thanked people for coming out on a snowy night to join prayer.

Frino led everyone in singing “Let there be peace on Earth” to conclude the service.