Jul 4, 2007 — Inside the stone Guinston Presbyterian Church, which dates to 1774, vandals took a can of white paint and splashed it over the wooden floors, seats and a cabinet.

They also took black and blue spray paint to the pulpit, windows and walls, and a painting of Jesus. They wrote "666" across the painting they removed from the wall, and they drew a pentagram on the floor.

But the vandals didn't stop there. They spray painted the outside of the old church, a newer house of worship that some members helped to build, as well as a shed and a sign. Messages included "F- God" and "Soul Kingz."

"I pray for them, and I pray for the people they hurt," the Rev. Daniel Moore said. "It's the people behind the building that they hurt."

Moore said he was not sure how much it would cost to repair the church but said insurance will likely will take care of most of that.

Members of two churches - Guinston Presbyterian in Chanceford Township and Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church in Windsor Township - discovered the vandalism Tuesday morning.

It marked the second time this week that residents in several communities have been scrubbing the spray paint off buildings and vehicles.

At least seven

people in Dallastown and 10 residents in Felton reported being the victims of vandalism Monday.

Police are looking into whether the cases are related. The same color of spray paint - orange and black - and similar messages, such as "666," were used in some of the cases, York Area Regional Police Sgt. Rodney Varner said.

The Rev. Ersel Staples received a call from his mother-in-law at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday that one of her co-workers had seen graffiti on Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church.

Staples went to check it out, and, to his dismay, all three walls were covered.

The graffiti included a swastika, "666," Satan, a penis and the letters "SK."

"It was pretty horrific stuff for the young people in our community to be seeing," Staples said.

Church members cleaned the graffiti off the building Tuesday.

"We scrubbed and we wiped until it was gone," Staples said. "It's just as white as it was before."

The church members will pray for whoever committed the vandalism, Staples said.

"The lost gave us a big sign saying they need help," Staples said.

Members of the Pennsylvania Network of Unity Coalitions plan to attend the Sunday morning service at Pleasant Grove to offer their fellowship and compassion, coordinator Dennis Biancuzzo wrote in an e-mail.

Moore expects that the members of his church will try to clean up the mess Thursday. He hopes that if the vandals are caught that they will be given community service and required to go on one of the church's mission trips to New Orleans.

He would like to see their energy channeled into something more creative and shown how they could change their lives for the better.

And the vandals would get to know what good, honest, hardworking Christian people the members of the church are.

"It's not an anonymous attack on a building," he said.