Approximately 60 Cambridge residents, including Mayor Alice K. Wolf, gathered near Harvard Square yesterday in protest of the impending war in the Middle East.

Carrying signs that read "War Is Not The Answer" and singing "We Shall Overcome," the random assortment of local citizens, from elementary school children to teens and the elderly attracted many passers-by as they "vigiled for peace."

The protest, organized by the Cambridge affiliate of SANE-Freeze began at about 3:30 p.m. on the corner of Garden St. and Mass Ave. As the evening progressed more and more people took a few minutes to join the original protesters.

"This is a very sad day," said Wolf. "We hope and we pray that before midnight there will be a resolution."

"We wish that the President would give sanctions a chance," said Olivia Abelson, chair of Cambridge SANE-Freeze, a national anti-war lobbying group.

"We are pleading for a continuation of sanctions and no loss of life among the children of Iraq or our men and women in the armed forces," she said.

But as abelson and others passed out signs and buttons to anyone that would accept, many people walked by with their heads down, picking up their pace as the protesters pleaded to "join them for a few moments to vigil for peace."

And while a good number of those driving by the vigil honked loudly and flashed "thumbs-up" signs to the protesters, a few verbally illustrated their disdain for the protest, yelling profanities out the windows of their cars.

But the activists said they did not mind the scattered abuse because of the seriousness of their cause.

"I think [the war is] stupid," said Cari Susan Benbassat-Miller, an eight-year-old protester who attends the Graham and Parks Elementary School in Cambridge. "Talking is the best way, like the sign says, to honor Martin Luther King and to do peace."

Sharon E. Peck, a writer and Cambridge resident, had her own ideas about how to attain peace.

"Love is the answer," Peck said. "I think it's going to take some pretty powerful loving attitudes. People have to walk up to him [Saddam] with love [and] then there will be no choice for him [but] to turn around. I feel like I could walk up to him with a look of love," she said.

As it began to get dark, protesters lit candles and gathered around Jeffrey L. Brown, pastor of the Union Baptist Church of Cambridge, as he led the group in song and prayer.

"We have a lot to pray for today," Brown said. "We must pray because prayer is the tool of empowerment for those who feel hopeless. We must never give up hope."