National Faith Leaders Offer Interfaith Prayer to Alleviate Poverty

Source: ISNA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

National Faith Leaders Offer Interfaith Prayer in Effort to Create Good Jobs, Green Jobs for Nation’s Poor

(WASHINGTON, DC - October 13, 2009) Four national faith leaders representing Jews, Christians and Muslims have united to offer a new interfaith prayer calling for the creation of new, sustainable and green job opportunities for the poor.

Written by Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA); Rev. Larry Snyder, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA); Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Christ in the USA; and Dr. Sayyid Syeed, national director for the Islamic Society of North America’s Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, the new prayer will be offered at public events across the country during the Fighting Poverty with Faith: Good Jobs, Green Jobs mobilization effort, including a special reading by the prayer’s authors at the Fighting Poverty with Faith’s concluding event in Washington on October 21.

Held this year between October 14 and 21, the Fighting Poverty with Faith mobilization will organize members from 34 national faith organizations at public events across the country to encourage government officials to fight poverty by ensuring equal opportunities for training and employment for the nation’s most vulnerable while working to usher in a new green economy. 

The religious leaders’ prayer reads:

• Merciful and compassionate God, Divine Architect, Your people and your planet call to you, for both are suffering.

• So many of your children cry out for shelter, food, and meaningful work. Make us partners, we pray, in your work of caring for all in need. 

• So much of your Creation groans from the effects of our pollution. Make us partners, we pray, in your work of healing the earth. Help us to create jobs that both honor the needs of your planet as well as those holy souls who have no work.

• Please give to those who lead a vision of the day when every person, created in your sacred image, has employment with a living wage. Give to us gathered here the courage to speak for those without voice, the strength to act on our convictions, the discernment to see the world as you want it to be, and the wisdom to respond together as persons of different faiths. In these moments with one another, may we feel your presence and together praise your holy name.

Amen

Led by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and Catholic Charities USA, national organizations endorsing the Fighting Poverty with Faith mobilization effort include, the Alliance to End Hunger; American Baptist Churches USA; Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies; BBYO, Inc.; Bread for the World; Center of Concern; The Episcopal Church; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Evangelicals for Social Action; Hindu American Foundation; Hindu American Seva Charities; International Association of Jewish Vocational Services; Islamic Relief; Islamic Society of North America; Jewish Labor Committee; Jewish Reconstructionist Federation; Jewish Women International; Lutheran Services in America; MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger; The National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd; National Council of Churches USA; National Council of Jewish Women; NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; Progressive National Baptist Church; The Rabbinical Assembly; Society of St. Vincent DePaul; Sojourners; Union for Reform Judaism; United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries; United Jewish Communities; The United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society; and Women of Reform Judaism.

The Fighting Poverty with Faith mobilization is part of JCPA’s “There Shall Be No Needy Among You” anti-poverty campaign and Catholic Charities USA’s Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America.  Since both campaigns launched in 2007, JCPA’s  and CCUSA’s efforts to urge local, state and national leaders to advance anti-poverty legislation and programs that help provide food, shelter, additional work and educational opportunities for the nation's most vulnerable, have led to an increased national commitment to reduce poverty.

More information on this year’s Fighting Poverty with Faith initiative can be found at www.fightingpovertywithfaith.com.

Catholic Charities USA’s members—more than 1,700 local Catholic Charities agencies and institutions nationwide—provide help and create hope for nearly 8.5 million people a year regardless of religious, social, or economic backgrounds. For almost 300 years, Catholic Charities agencies have worked to reduce poverty by providing a myriad of vital services in their communities, ranging from health care and job training to food and housing. In 2010, Catholic Charities USA celebrates its centennial anniversary.

The NCC is the ecumenical voice of America's Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches. These 35 communions have 45 million faithful members in 100,000 congregations in all 50 states.

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is the largest umbrella organization of Muslims in North America serving a growing Muslim community with estimated 7 million Americans. Since its establishment in 1963, ISNA has actively brought communities together to address important issues facing Muslims in the United States and Canada. ISNA provides practical training for leaders and administrators of mosques, Islamic schools, youth organizations and social service organizations within the Muslim community.

JCPA, the public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community, serves as the national coordinating and advisory body for the 14 national and 125 local agencies comprising the field of Jewish community relations.

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Contact: 
Islamic Society of North America:  Mohamed Elsanousi: (202) 544-5656
Jewish Council for Public Affairs: Adam Muhlendorf:  (202) 265-3000; (202) 641-6216 (c)
Catholic Charities USA: Roger Conner: (703) 236-6218
National Council of Churches in Christ in the USA:  Phil Jenks: (212) 870-2228