Prayer Vigil Calls on State to Fund Poverty Programs

Calling on state officials to place a priority on the needs of the poor as they work on funding cuts to meet California’s budget shortfall, a small group of demonstrators conducted a prayer vigil Friday outside the state office building in downtown Los Angeles.

The “fast for the poor, the vulnerable and the voiceless” was meant to coincide with a weeklong vigil for the same purpose being held in the rotunda of the state Capitol in Sacramento, said James Court, a Southern California organizer for Jericho, a Sacramento-based, grass-roots lobbying group for the poor. The noontime effort was meant “to express our concern that the poor are not forgotten,” Court added, saying the group would repeat its vigil next Friday.

“We are going to be protagonists for those who have no strength,” said George F. Regas, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, who led the prayers.