An Occupy group is gearing up to provide an alternative voice to the National Prayer Breakfast, scheduled for tomorrow, Rabbi Michael Lerner says in Tikkun.
As plans are being made at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Dupont Circle for the elaborate invitation only National Prayer Breakfast, organized by The Fellowship Foundation, a conservative Christian organization more widely known as “The Family,” just a few blocks away a humble gathering of interfaith clergy, lay leaders, faith-based social justice advocates, and members of the Occupy Movement are simultaneously finalizing their plans for an alternative interfaith People’s Prayer Breakfast.
Coincidently, both are being held on the very day that the UN World Interfaith Harmony Week begins on Thursday, February 2, 2012, marking the beginning of a special week set aside by the UN to enhance mutual understanding, harmony, and cooperation among people. Counter to the lavish National Prayer Breakfast held at the Washington Hilton, the People’s Prayer Breakfast will offer simplicity and a model of GREEN in its use of environmentally friendly paper products and recycling efforts, pledging not to use plastic bottles-only pitchers of water to accompany a modest continental breakfast.
“This breakfast is open to everyone and is both a call to prayer and a call to action,” says James Lee, Coordinator and one of the founding members of Occupy Faith DC (OFDC), an interfaith coalition supporting the non-violent social action of the Occupy Movement in the National Capital Region. Continues Lee, “We are gathering to tell the political, business, and media leaders in our nation that, ‘There is enough for everyone!’ in our society, and that this current crisis is not only about ‘jobs,’ but about our national priorities.”
“We must remember,” states Rev. Brian Merritt, Pastor of the Palisades Community Church in Washington, D.C., also a founding member of Occupy Faith DC. “that prayer is a sacred act that connects us to something greater than ourselves and moves us to action in transforming the world.”
Occupy Faith DC’s web site currently features an invitation to its event with all the details about where and when.
The annual event, hosted by The Family, has become a staple at which many politicians feel compelled to appear. At the 2010 breakfast, President Obama condemned the proposed Antihomosexuality Bill in Uganda’s Parliament “odious.”