November 12, 1995
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago
John M. Buchanan, Pastor

I participated in an extraordinary event yesterday. I was
invited by Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, Executive Secretary of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ, to be part of a small
delegation to go to Washington and meet with the President. The
National Council of Churches General Board, on which I sit as a
representative of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) met in
Oakland, California last week and passed a resolution asking the
President and Congress on behalf of the Churches who are members
of the Council, to remember the poor, the vulnerable, the sick
and elderly and the children as the current budget negotiations
are carried out.

So yesterday I was part of a small group which met with the
President. My specific responsibility was to represent urban
churches which do good work but which cannot, alone, fill the
gaps in absolutely necessary services to the homeless, poor, sick
and elderly currently under consideration for reduction or
elimination.

This is a defining moment for America. There is much non-
partisan consensus about the budget:

. that it must be brought into balance;

e that it ought to stimulate the rethinking and renewal
of the welfare system}

. that it ought to promote and foster economic growth.

What the Ncc said was that while fostering individual
responsibility and community accountability it ought also help
provide for the neediest and most vulnerable of our citizens.

On behalf of the churches we urged the President to veto any
budget that backs away from responsibility for the needy. We
told him it was not a partisan, political issue, but a moral and
theological issue and the NCC will ask for an opportunity to say
the same thing to Mr. Dole and Mr. Gingrich.

At the end of our time with him, Bishop Nathaniel Linsey of
the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church prayed with eloquence
and strength.

When I had my few moments with him I said: "Mr. President,
Keep the Faith" and I said hat we would pray for him and for our
nation this morning and he said “we all need that."

80 will you join me now in prayer:

Almighty and merciful God, Lord of all
nations, we pray for our President in this
critical hour. Give him strength and courage
to be the President of all the people. Give
him integrity and determination to do what is
right and just and good. We pray for his
wife and his daughter. Keep them in Your
care.

We pray for leaders in congress, our
representatives. Bless them with your gifts
of discernment, wisdom, fairness and
compassion. Help them hold on to a vision of
our nation as a city on a hill which enables
and empowers all of its people, old ana
young, rich and poor, sick and healthy, black
and white to live in liberty, security and
well being.

Oh God, bless this nation in this season of
Thanksgiving with new resolve to be part of
your new creation, to seek justice, to care
for the needy, to walk humbly with you
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen