With Senate vote to proceed pending, pastors gather to pray for courage and wisdom

November 19, 2009

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WASHINGTON - This morning, shortly before Senate Majority Leader Reid formally announced long-awaited health reform legislation, local pastors and lay leaders from states with Senators that are crucial to the outcome of reform gathered outside the Capitol Building to pray for continued progress on legislation to extend affordable coverage to families.

"All year long, people in thousands of faith communities across America have been praying hard for reform that helps them deal with the rising cost of health care," said Rev. Frederick McCullough, Pastor of St. John AME in Omaha, NE. "They've been praying that our leaders in Washington put aside partisan politics and work together to make health care more affordable for their families."

"We bring the prayers of the thousands of families in our communities here with us today," continued Stella Reese, lay leader from St. Peter Claver Catholic Church and a member of the Micah Project in New Orleans, LA, who in June helped organize a 700 person town hall meeting on health care with her Representative - Ahn Joseph Cao - who crossed party lines to vote for the House legislation on November 7.  "We pray that the Senate will act with the courage and wisdom to know that stopping now is not an option for families suffering from the rising cost of health care."

In addition to the prayer event, the clergy and lay leaders who traveled to D.C. from Louisiana, Nebraska, Colorado, Michigan, New York and Vermont also met with their Senators' offices.  Over the coming weeks, PICO National Network, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, Interfaith Worker Justice, Catholics United and other faith allies will be holding religious leader conference calls and meetings with Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Senator Kent Conrad and Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, and Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska's Chief of Staff, urging them to support reform and highlighting the devastating impact on families in their states if reform fails to pass.

"Today we mark another key moment in this historic debate for families," said Rev. Claudia Hollinger, a Deacon at St. Jude's Episcopal Church and clergy leader with Flint Area Congregations Together in Flint, MI.  "The legislation that Senator Reid announced would extend coverage to 31 million, ban insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and help small businesses deal with rising health care costs, all while reducing the deficit by $127 billion.  The bill is not perfect and we still have work to do to make coverage affordable to all families, but it is an important step forward." 

Rev. Erik Karas, Pastor of Faith Lutheran Church and a member of PICO Colorado in Eaton, CO summed up the event by saying, "Next week, when many in America will gather to give thanks for all that we are blessed with, we pray that we will also be able to give thanks for the courage, the wisdom and compassion exhibited by our leaders in Washington at this crucial moment in our country's history."

The event was sponsored by PICO National Network (www.piconetwork.org), and Faith in Public Life (www.faithinpubliclife.org).