Forget the noisemakers and the champagne -- some area residents will be bringing in the new year with prayer and meditation.

These are not Y2K doomsayers or prophets of the second coming of Christ, but individuals and groups seeking peace or asking for God's blessings on the Rogue Valley as the calendar turns to 2000.

"I think that there is an anxiety within human consciousness right now that people traditionally want to do something special on New Year's Eve," said the Rev. Beverly McPherron, minister of Christ Unity Church in Medford. "Because this (day) is a little more noteworthy ... how better to celebrate it than doing something spiritual and making a conscious choice to make a difference in the world?"

Twenty-four members of Christ Unity Church will pray for world peace in a 12-hour vigil from noon to midnight today at the church, 540 N. Holly St. McPherron will lead a prayer and meditation service at 11 p.m. The congregation joins the members of the 1,000 Unity centers worldwide in repeating the same short affirmation emphasizing world peace through inner peace.

"We do believe very much in prayer. Prayer can change circumstances," said McPherron. "If our prayers join with other prayers across the globe ... we create a consciousness (of peace) across the globe. Because we believe that peace begins inside each one of us."

In a separate event, an interdenominational prayer group is planning three straight days of fasting and prayer from 10 a.m. today to 10 a.m. Monday at the First Church of the Nazarene, 1974 E. McAndrews.

"We're praying for the good of the valley," said Rogue Valley Intercessory Prayer member Fred Harrison. "A lot of time we have not because we ask not. So we make requests. We pray for various needs."

The group has prayed for a hardware store in Shady Cove and has sought blessings for teachers, for an end to divorce and drug-abuse. They occasionally walk the streets and highways praying for whatever comes to mind.

Harrison said many people he knows have expressed fear about potential Y2K problems, but that their main aim is to bring in the next year and millennium on a positive note.

"A lot of us felt like we'd like to go out and celebrate New Year's but we felt God would rather have us on our knees in prayer,'' Harrison said.

In Ashland, peace-seekers will be walking their way into the millennium on a 37-foot diameter labyrinth set up at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 87 Fourth St. The painted canvas design isn't a maze to be solved, but a fluid spiral allowing walkers to move into the center and out again.

"The principle is going within. It's meditative, allowing us to feel our deepest joys and sorrows," said Ashland Friends of the Labyrinth member Elizabeth Hallett. "The idea is as one goes into the center of the labyrinth one casts off the cares of the outside world and goes into a deeper place of knowing. Standing in the center, the labyrinth envelops the person with a sense of peace. Then moving back out ... we take on again our worldly work with a sense of renewal and a new commitment, taking the inner peace with us into the outer world."

Hallett said there was no particular significance to opening the labyrinth to the public during the four days surrounding New Year's. "For us the significance ... is to draw in as many people as possible into a state of inner peace and contemplation of (personal) direction into the coming year and millennium."

Open labyrinth times are interspersed with a variety of music and faith focus hours will end with a closing ceremony at 4 p.m. Sunday.