People of faith gather at the U.S. Capitol to pray
for persons who will be affected by budget cuts

Washington, March 29, 2011 -- Nearly 150 people of faith gathered near the U.S. Capitol Monday to express in prayer their concern that proposed cuts in the federal budget will hurt the nation's most vulnerable populations.

The gathering came at the end of the annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days, a three-day event held at the Hilton Doubletree Hotel, just outside Washington, D.C. in Arlington, Va.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days is the nation's largest annual gathering of faith-based activists from the United States and around the world. Some 700 participants attended the conference to show their concern, not just about the budget, but about development, security and economic justice, especially as they affect women and girls in the U.S. and abroad.

Addressing the prayer vigil this afternoon were  J. Herbert Nelson, Director of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Washington Office; Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK; Rev. David Beckman, President of Bread for the World; and Ambassador Tony Hall, Director of the Alliance to End Hunger.

Leading a litany of prayer were Sandy Sorensen, Director of the UCC Justice and Witness Ministries Washington Office; Jennifer DeLeon, Advocacy Director of Lutheran Services in America’s Chicago office; Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach, Director Of the Mennonite Central Committee’s Washington Office; and Rev. Michael Livingston, Director of the National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative.

The text of the litany:

Sandy Sorensen: Holy One, we thank you for gathering us this day as your people, women and men committed to loving you in one another. We thank you for entrusting us with the care of your precious creation and for calling us to be doers of justice and makers of peace. We seek your grace to be the church you call us to be, even as we acknowledge our frequent failure to live into that call.

Jennifer DeLeon: Your people suffer dear God. In a world you created with abundant food sources, people go hungry.

The waters you called into being are diverted for uses you never intended and the poor of the earth go thirsty. Your people suffer and call out to you. Hear the cry of the poor Oh God!

Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach: In this land of plenty many live in scarcity. Countless have no work and many of those who do, still live with anxiety and need. We lay before you their concerns as we pray for those who are able to address them. Hear the cry of the poor Oh God!

Michael Livingston: We pray for those who have power; may they have compassion as well.

All: The Lord hears the cry of the poor; blessed be the Lord.

Michael Livingston: We lift up to you our lawmakers; may they hold your law in their hearts.

All: The Lord hears the cry of the poor; blessed be the Lord.

Michael Livingston: We commend to you those who have influence; may they use it on behalf of those who feel forsaken.

All: The Lord hears the cry of the poor; blessed be the Lord.

Michael Livingston:  For our sisters and brothers who hunger for bread and justice, we ask the fullness of your mercy and pledge our best efforts to obtain the fullness of justice.

All: The Lord hears the cry of the poor; blessed be the Lord.

Michael Livingston: For the poor of the earth who sustain our extravagance with their labor and whose environment we devastate with extractive industries and with our waste, may they be lifted out of poverty as we repent and make amends.

All: The Lord hears the cry of the poor; blessed be the Lord.

Michael Livingston: We surrender all of these concerns to you, Holy One, mindful of your mercy and of our responsibility. Amen.

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org