"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."

There was agreement that the event's evangelical nature had not been made clear to the public.

"It ought to be made a lot more up front, this is exactly what it is and so forth," Scroggins said. "There's enough mistakes and mistaken impressions that it ought to be a lot more forthright, made more open so there wouldn't be any miscommunications."

Greg Johnson, state coordinator for the group, acknowledged some misunderstanding in years past between the national group and UVIA secretary Linda Walton, who has organized events in past years.

Johnson said he told Walton, "Maybe you were unaware that the National Day of Prayer Task Force encourages those events that are being planned under their umbrella to be distinctly evangelical. I'm just relating what we're told in our national training, that those expressions that we are hosting are of our tradition. If it's going to be a Task Force-sponsored event, then I think you ought to honor those guidelines."

Walton said she was not aware that the group was evangelical when she e-mailed Task Force last year saying she wanted to coordinate events in Utah Valley and identified herself as a Seventh-day Adventist. Walton said the Task Force's Web site does not state the program is for evangelical Christians only and gives the impression that it is for everybody. She was also surprised that the task force did not tell her they already had a Utah County coordinator. Walton said she planned the event on her own and used Task Force supplied posters.

Johnson said anyone can order posters from the Web site.

"Maybe that's not as clear as it should be (that the posters are advertising the evangelical expression)," he said.

Johnson and Walton agreed that the problem was miscommunication.

Walton said UVIA will reorganized its efforts next year and will have its own event on the National Day of Prayer.

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E-mail: mdecker@desnews.com