Dear friends in Christ,

I want to reach out to you to share two matters of concern and interest. The first is to ask you to please pray for the victims of the bomb attack in Manchester, England, last evening, and to ask for healing and hope for that country in shock. May God grant us grace and wisdom to live from the deepest conviction of our faith, that love triumphs over evil.

Second is ask you to consider joining in a movement called, "A Call to Fasting, Prayer, and Action". I, as your pastor and priest, signed on personally a few days ago, at the invitation of a faith based organization that I have admired for decades, but yesterday I was pleased to discover that both the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church are asking their membership to consider becoming involved.

The focus of this intentional action is to stand with the poor and the powerless in the face of the deep budget cuts being proposed in Federal spending for programs that are essential to their (and our) lives. Health, food, housing, social services and education, are all slated to suffer hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts by the Congress, even as taxes are reduced for those who are well off.