OREM — Thursday morning's National Day of Prayer Task Force service drew twice as many attendees as last year's service, but none belonging to the LDS Church.

Also missing was an organizer from the Utah Valley Interfaith Alliance that had planned to be part of the prayer day gathering until earlier this week when they were told members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with members from other non-evangelical Christian churches, would not be allowed to say prayers or conduct National Day of Prayer Task Force affiliated events.

About 25 parishioners and pastors attended the Orem gathering where they prayed for the nation.

Afterward, some who attended said they would have welcomed LDS members and would have supported them in leading prayers.

"It wouldn't have bothered me," said Pastor Charles Hines of the Orem Community Church. "I have my faith, which is very orthodox, but I'm not going to take away an LDS person's freedom to pray. When we're talking about praying for the country, it's nice to have everybody praying."

Other pastors said while they don't have a problem with it personally, they understood the event sponsor's wishes to organize an evangelical expression.

"As far as the LDS leading, I wouldn't personally have any problems," said Allen Heishman, Orem Christian Center Youth Pastor, "except for the fact that under the rules it's specific that they have to be in agreement with the Lausanne Covenant. Had we had another event, I would have totally welcomed anyone to come and pray with us; however, I think we should obey the rules of what we've set forth."

Some pastors said the concern is that the conception of God professed by the LDS Church differs from that of Evangelicals. The LDS Church belief is that God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate and distinct beings. The Evangelical belief is that the three are a single entity — the Holy Trinity —that expresses itself through the three vestiges.

"I wouldn't have tried to stop anyone from praying, but I would just question who it is that the LDS person is praying to," said Pastor Larry Scroggins of Calvary Chapel Utah Valley. "Because I have a fundamental problem with the theology of the LDS faith, and if I'm right and the LDS person is wrong, then we are praying to two entirely different Gods, conceptions of God."

Heishman agreed, and said other groups should hold separate events.

"I have a hard time, because there's such drastic differences in philosophies and theologies that we may not be praying to the same person, we may not be asking for the same things," he said. "I would encourage those groups to have their own events like this. I think it's important for the Evangelicals to have a way to express themselves as Evangelicals. For instance, Evangelicals are not allowed to come into the LDS Conference and lead a prayer there, and so likewise I would expect it to be the opposite."