WASHINGTON — With some of the capital's feuding politicians looking on, Bishop T.D. Jakes preached unity and charity during a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Hurricane Katrina victims.

"We can no longer be a nation that overlooks the poor and the suffering, and continue past the ghetto on our way to the Mardi Gras," Jakes said during services at the Washington National Cathedral.

President Bush, heavily criticized for the response to Hurricane Katrina, said the nation is prayerful for the victims and their families, thankful for many acts of courage and generosity and "mindful of the work ahead."

"As we rebuild homes and businesses, we will renew our promise as a land of equality and decency," Bush said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who attended the service, issued a statement saying, "In prayer and action, I stand with my American family today."

The ecumenical service that included pastors from New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., touched on social divisions exposed by the hurricane. Jakes, of The Potter's House church in Dallas, referred to "the unmentionable issues that confront us on a day-to-day basis."

"Until we love enough to trade places with the poor, the disadvantaged, the disenfranchised, and, yes, even minorities in this country, then healing will not be real," he said. "And it will never be complete.

"It will cost money to help people, and sometimes we have to love them enough to pay the bill," Jakes said.

While the storm touched every race and religion, Bush said, "some of the greatest hardship fell upon citizens already facing lives of struggle — the elderly, the vulnerable and the poor."

"This poverty has roots in generations of segregation and discrimination that closed many doors of opportunity," Bush said.

"Most of the people did speak about how we really need to reach out and understand that there are poor in this country," said Barbara Nance McKee, whose children and grandchildren live in New Orleans. "And I frankly believe that this country can help them."

Some, however, said the service should have been held earlier, not nearly three weeks after the disaster.

"The timing seemed almost like an afterthought, actually," Monica Williams said, "but still an appropriate thing to do."