June 2008 City Hall Prayer Service and Procession
In the light of a city budget deficit of $338 million, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Proposed City Budget 2008-09 slashed $37 million in critical service programs for the very poorest members of our community.
The leadership of Religious Witness with
Homeless People organized a powerful action inside City Hall to influence
the restoration of that funding by the
members of the Board of Supervisors. The moral persuasion of leaders and
members of Religious Witness (united with the pressure put forth by numerous
other non-profit organizations) resulted in the almost complete restoration
of the proposed cuts.
"Claiming our City's Budget as a Moral Document"
Religious Witness conducted our "Claiming
Our City's Budget as a Moral Document" Prayer Service on June 5, 2008.
Our service conveyed the deep spiritual message of justice and compassion
that transcends all of our faith traditions. With a united voice, we proclaimed
to our elected officials: "We call upon you to remember that the moral
compass always points in the direction of compassion".
While we set a goal of 40 interfaith leader participants, there were actually
52 who showed up and joined in this profound religious witnessing. In addition
to the religious leaders, over 125 other members of Religious Witness joined
in the service.
Shown below are twelve pictures of the overall service and
procession. In addition, our photographer
took several dozen beautiful pictures of individual religious leaders, and
we
are pleased
to
share those
with you
now also. You may view and/or download (in a higer resolution) any or all
of them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/relwithome/MoralCompassPrayerServiceProcession (photos
by Bret Putnam Photography).
