Providence Journal photos / Steve Szydlowski
Governor Chafee, left, as well as Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, House Speaker Gordon Fox and Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed (all not pictured), were among R.I. leaders attending the event Wednesday.
Interfaith leaders called on lawmakers not to forget the poor during the upcoming session.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Governor Chafee and at least a dozen other elected leaders joined a wide spectrum of clergy who converged on the State House Wednesday to ask that lawmakers will have the "wisdom and compassion" to make reducing poverty a top priority this coming year.
With the blowing of three shofars providing a backdrop, the fifith annual vigil drew 100 participants including 60 clergy, though Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin was not one of them.
Calvary Baptist Church's Rev. Linda Watkins said "more and more Rhode Islanders are tumbling down the fiscal cliff" and can't afford to wait to wait another year for a recovery to kick in.
"What will your legacy be?" she asked lawmakers. "Deeper poverty, or recovery for all."