Hunger, poverty meeting draws religious leaders

WASHINGTON — Leaders and members from many faith traditions gathered at Washington National Cathedral June 11 for a convocation dedicated to reducing hunger and poverty throughout the world.

Nearly 1,000 people from 45 states sang and prayed under the cathedral’s soaring arches as Catholic, Jewish, Protestant and Muslim leaders urged an abiding commitment to bring “bread to those who are hungry and hunger for justice to those who have bread.” Organized by Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger lobby, the interfaith service was part of a four-day gathering devoted to harvesting grass-roots activism in the nation’s capital. On June 12, nearly 700 Bread for the World organizers fanned out across Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers not to slight the poor in the pending farm bill and other legislation, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Coulter Stapleton.

The gathering is part of a broader anti-poverty movement gaining momentum in the country. On June 11, U2 frontman Bono and former Senate leaders Tom Daschle, a Democrat, and Bill Frist, a Republican, kicked off One Vote ’08, an effort to make global poverty reduction a 2008 presidential campaign theme.