This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/nelson-mandela-south-africans-national-day-of-prayer

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Nelson Mandela: national day of prayer for country's 'guiding light' Nelson Mandela: national day of prayer for country's 'guiding light'
(about 1 hour later)
South Africans have flocked to churches for a national day of prayer to remember Nelson Mandela and pray for the country's future, following the death of South Africa's first black president on Thursday.South Africans have flocked to churches for a national day of prayer to remember Nelson Mandela and pray for the country's future, following the death of South Africa's first black president on Thursday.
Millions thronged to churches, mosques and synagogues to hear preachers and clerics reflect on the most famous South African of them all. At the Regina Mundi church in Soweto, hundreds packed in to hear Father Sebastian Rossouw describe Mandela as a guiding light for the nation. In Bryanston, Mandela's ex-wife Winnie and several family members attended a service along with the current president, Jacob Zuma. Millions thronged to churches, mosques and synagogues to hear preachers and clerics reflect on the most famous South African of them all.
The day of prayer marks the beginning of what will be an emotional, week-long goodbye, culminating in a state funeral next Sunday at his ancestral home of Qunu expected to draw scores of world leaders. There will be a memorial service in a Johannesburg stadium on Tuesday, where Mandela made his last public appearance, for the closing ceremony of the 2010 football World Cup. In Bryanston, Mandela's ex-wife Winnie and several family members attended a service along with the current president, Jacob Zuma.
The body for the man who, as the country's first black president forged a new multiracial South Africa, will lie in state at the Union Buildings, the seat of government, in the nation's capital, Pretoria, from Wednesday to Friday. At the Regina Mundi church in Soweto, there was standing room only at the 9am mass, as hundreds of worshippers and a formidable number of camera crews packed the aisles to hear Father Sebastian Rossouw describe Mandela as a guiding light for the nation.
At the church, famous for being a meeting place for anti-apartheid activists and around which the 1976 Soweto uprising took place, Rossouw echoed the mantra that is fast becoming a theme here: "Mandela was our light in the darkness," he said. "Learn from his life. Madiba claimed his humanity and showed the heights to which humanity can rise. But we can have another Mandela. So to say there will never be another as great is wrong. Amongst us is another who can be like him."
In Cape Town, under an already searing early morning sun, several hundred people filled St George's Cathedral, the 19th-century church that Desmond Tutu transformed into a bastion of resistance against apartheid.
Beneath a central panel depicting a black Christ, ANC members, some with the party's flags draped over their shoulders, sat side by side with tourists and students.
Margaret Mervis and her daughter had come to the service, each clutching bouquets of flowers. More than 40 years ago, as a student in the whites-only University of Cape Town, Mervis recalled, Mandela had inspired her to join regular protests staged by students.
"Right here in the cathedral we were teargassed; some of us who were detained were never the same again. We thought many times of leaving this country but Mandela taught us we all have to fight for justice. The courage Mandela had was something special, he was just an amazing human being."
As children in their Sunday best played hopscotch on the stairs outside, a visitor from Sri Lanka stepped to the pulpit to read a short piece. "We want you to know that the world is looking to you to understand the power of reconciliation. South Africa stands tall when it comes to forgiveness, and Sri Lanka can learn from that," she said, referring to the country's almost three-decade-long battle with the Tamil Tigers separatist movement.
Sunday is a day when many South Africans visit their dead and candles were lit in graveyards around the country as well as at the spots that have become flower-covered shrines – at Mandela's various homes past and present, at churches, under his statues and in squares and streets named for him.
There was no day of rest for South Africa's road workers. With foreign dignitaries expected to arrive ahead of the memorial events planned for this week, potholes were being filled and grass verges cut. On the road to the 90,000-capacity Soccer City stadium where Johannesburg's main memorial service is to be held on Tuesday, there was feverish painting of kerbs and road lines.
In Pretoria, where Mandela's body will lie in state from Wednesday, there were similar scenes and people have been urged to line the route his coffin will take. Cape Town will hold its open service on Wednesday.
Security advance parties were filling out hotels on Sunday before the arrival of dozens of world leaders this week, ahead of Sunday's funeral at Mandela's birthplace of Qunu in the Eastern Cape. Already the talk is of the biggest funeral ceremony in the world.
Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.