"Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen." --Collect for the Fifth Sunday in Lent
Congressional Leadership Needed: Health Care Reform
The statistics are stark reminders that the health care crisis in the United States continues to rage out of control with no Congressional leadership in sight. Health insurance premiums have been rising at double-digit annual rates. Over the past four years, premiums have increased six times faster than inflation and four times faster than wages. Next year the average health insurance premium for a family of four will exceed $14,500. As it does each year, the U.S. Census Bureau released figures showing that the number of Americans going without health insurance coverage rose by 800,000 to 45.8 million from 2003 to 2004. That number is expected to increase from 2004 to 2005. The impacts of the 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes have yet to be fully understood.
Congressional leadership is needed to address the larger issue of health care reform. While a number of smaller incremental health care legislative initiatives have been introduced, the health care system in the United States is broken. Contact your Senators and Representatives and urge them to take the lead on health care reform today. To send a message to your members of Congress CLICK HERE.
CUBA: Tell Congress to Protest the Administration�s Revoking Religious Travel Licenses
Companion relationships between U.S. Church bodies and their counterparts in Cuba � at the denominational, diocesan, and parish levels � are critical for Christians in Cuba. In a severely impoverished country, these relationships help provide the Cuban Church with financial resources, supplies, strategic support, and the accompaniment of prayer. Much of this work is made possible by U.S. religious travel to Cuba, which has always been allowed by the U.S. government in spite of the embargo and travel ban. Beginning last fall, the Bush Administration has moved quietly to eliminate religious travel to Cuba, revoking travel licenses that many denominations and other bodies have held for decades. As illustrated by Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold�s recent trip to Cuba (see ENS story), such visits provide important pastoral support for religious institutions in Cuba. Eliminating or severely curtailing this category of travel would undermine the existing pastoral relationships between U.S. and Cuban churches, and bring more suffering to a people who have already been greatly hurt by the policies of the U.S. government.
Click here to send a letter to your lawmakers. Ask them to call U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of the Treasury John Snow to insist that the Administration continue to grant general-travel licenses for Cuba to U.S. religious institutions.
