Students prayed for less stress as the semester winds down and final examinations approach.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 900 Normal Road, hosted #Prayers2Pass on Tuesday passing out free snacks and drinks while praying with students. Participants prayed in an attempt to lower the semester’s-end stress levels.

Church member Ellen Anderson helped man the table in the church’s front yard.

“We know what a stressful time this is for students,” Anderson said. “We thought with all of the students that walk through our yard that we would take this day before exams really crank up to offer them a snack, an energy drink or the opportunity to say a prayer with them or to write a prayer down.”

Some students use the church’s yard as a shortcut to get to the engineering and business buildings. Reverend Stacy Walker-Frontjes said many students stopped and had a snack or shared a prayer.

“How this came about was a discussion about how to share the good news of God’s love, that we know being inside the church, with the people that are outside the church, and how can we do that in a way that is friendly and hospitable,” Walker-Frontjes said. “So basically what we’re thinking when we’re giving this away is we’re trying to show God’s love through these gifts, and we’re not trying to convert anybody to our way of thinking or anything like that, but we’re just trying to spread the love around.”

Senior accounting major Ryan Andrews helped himself to a bottle of water as he passed by.

“I like it. It’s a very positive community service,” Andrews said. “It’s in front of a church, but it’s not too religious oriented, so that’s always a plus. I wrote a prayer and I’m not too religious, more of just the occasional Christian.”

Senior marketing major Tim Campbell thought the event was a generous move on behalf of the church.

“I just think that they’re trying to help just relieve some stress and give students the boost that they need to get through finals week,” Campbell said.

Campbell said the event got his attention because it was a hot day and church members were offering cold drinks.

Church member Jamie Stubblefield said church members had set up a website for those who couldn’t stop by as well as anyone interested in making prayer requests.

“We tried to run a Twitter campaign around it with a hashtag hoping that it would maybe catch on with people talking about it,” Stubblefield said.

Stubblefield said the event had a no-pressure feel to it and was all about showing students they were there for them.

“It was just kind of a laidback event that just kind of let the students around here know that were caring for them and wishing them well as finals approach,” Stubblefield said.