Fall of the Berlin Wall: who says prayer doesn't work?

I was deeply moved by this article in the BBC Religion & Ethics pages on today's 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall:

[url]Did a prayer meeting really bring down the Berlin Wall and end the Cold War?[/url]

While there were certainly many contributing factors in the collapse of the GDR (and subsequently the related Soviet regimes in Eastern Europe), it was the courageous, entirely non-violent protest of these worshippers that proved to be the "seismic moment", as the article describes:

Up to 8,000 crowded into St Nicholas Church, including members of the feared Stasi (secret police) who had been sent to occupy it.

Other Leipzig churches opened to accommodate additional protesters. About 70,000 people had now gathered in the city.

After an hour-long service at St Nicholas, Pastor Führer led worshippers outside.

The nearby Augustusplatz was filled with demonstrators clutching lit candles. Slowly, the crowd began walking around the city, past the Stasi headquarters, chanting "we are the people" and "no violence", and accompanied by thousands of helmeted riot police ready to intervene.

The tension was palpable.

But at the decisive moment the police stood aside and let the protesters march by.

Pastor Führer said: "They didn't attack. They had nothing to attack for. East German officials would later say they were ready for anything, except for candles and prayer."

This article, reprinted from Religion and Ethics News Weekly on the 20th anniversary, is also inspiring:

[url]Prayer power and the end of the Berlin Wall[/url]

Just a month after the massive demonstration, the wall between East and West Berlin came down. The church had sent a powerful message to the world: the East German government no longer controlled its people.

"If any even ever merited the description of 'miracle' that was it," Fuhrer said. "A revolution that succeeded, a revolution that grew out of the church. It is astonishing that God let us succeed with this revolution."...

But Fuhrer said he and his fellow worshippers didn't do what they did back then to draw people to the church. "We did it," he said, "because the church has to do it."