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A group of Christians plans to attend SatanCon in Boston this week to pray for the attendees of what is being described as "the largest satanic gathering in history."
"I initially went to prayer with a preconceived idea that God would want this to be prayed away," Intercessors for America regional leader Suzie MacAskill told the Christian Post. "It was following this assumption that I was awakened through the night with a clear sense of ‘This is [God’s] harvest field.'"
SatanCon 2023, which is scheduled to take place April 28-30 in Boston, marks the 10-year anniversary of The Satanic Temple, according to its website. The theme of the gathering is "Hexennacht in Boston," translated from German for "Witches' Night," which marks the ancient pagan holiday of May Eve.
The Temple claims to be a nontheistic religious organization that does not worship or believe in a personal Satan, but rather aims to "encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice, and undertake noble pursuits."
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The Baphomet statue is seen in the conversion room at the Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts, on Oct. 8, 2019. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
SatanCon, which will include discussion panels, entertainment, satanic rituals such as "unbaptisms," a satanic wedding chapel and a "satanic marketplace," was dedicated to Democratic Boston Mayor Michelle Wu after the Temple was not allowed to deliver an invocation at Boston City Hall.
The group held a similar gathering in Scottsdale, Arizona, last year, which they dedicated to former Republican Mayor Jim Lane and former Republican Councilor Suzanne Klapp, who also denied a request to invoke the devil at a City Council meeting.
Sisters Suzie and Lynn MacAskill, who serve as regional leaders in Boston for the Washington, D.C.-based Intercessors for America, told the Christian Post that hundreds of Christians intend to show up at SatanCon to pray and conduct worship services.
The Satanic Temple filed a lawsuit in 2021 after multiple requests to deliver a satanic invocation at Boston City Hall were denied. (jorgeantonio via Getty Images)
"Since truly seeking God's will for this event, and not coming with my own ideas, I believe I've been able to more clearly hear of His love for those who are lost and His strategy for praying for this event," Suzie MacAskill said, explaining that while she initially prayed for the event to fail, she shifted instead to praying for the souls of the attendees.
"God is showing me that I need to repent of this and try instead to look at each individual and see them as lost, broken, wounded, seeking and be the person who stands in the gap to cry out for their salvation," she said.
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"We pray for a harvest of lost souls to take place as we have never seen before."
"My personal sense is that God is doing something new, something powerful, something wonderful, and He is calling His bride to unity as He does this," McAskill continued. "We are seeing intercessors and watchmen joining with us from all over Massachusetts, New England and this nation to see what the enemy intended for evil used by God for His good and mighty purposes."
"We pray for a harvest of lost souls to take place as we have never seen before," she added.
The Satanic Temple's statue of Baphomet was based on a drawing by occultist Éliphas Lévi, pictured above at a museum in Germany. (picture alliance via Getty Images)
Lynn MacAskill noted to the Christian Post that there will be multiple Christian events in Boston during the same time as SatanCon.
"We have been blessed to hear of several intercessors from across the nation who have felt God calling them to Boston," she said. "The Revive Boston conference is going on the same weekend as SatanCon, and they are doing evangelism teaching during it and then planning to have multiple small teams go out into Boston on Saturday afternoon to evangelize."
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has also called for "intense prayer" in response to the event, according to Catholic News Agency.
Dave Kubal, CEO of Intercessors for America, told Fox News Digital in January that his organization of "half a million prayer warriors" has taken a three-pronged approach to resisting and exposing The Satanic Temple with "news, prayer and action."
Kubal said Christians with his group fasted and prayed against SatanCon in Scottsdale last year, and claimed the event "fizzled" and "their numbers were very small for all practical purposes."
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Candles for sale at the Satanic Temple in Salem, Massachusetts, on Oct. 8, 2019. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
While taking the same approach this year, Intercessors for America has also been trying to raise awareness that The Satanic Temple is wading into legal battles about abortion. Citing its tenet that "one's body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone," the group has filed lawsuits in multiple states on religious freedom grounds, claiming abortion bans violate the rights of an "involuntarily pregnant woman" to engage in a "Satanic Abortion Ritual."
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In February, the Temple rolled out TST Health to provide free telehealth screenings and appointments for patients to obtain abortion pills.
Fox News' Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
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