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UUs Join Interfaith Clergy to Advocate for Bi-Partisan Healthcare Reform

Singing “ Gathered Here” and carrying a gurney bearing photos and testimonials of uninsured Californians, more than two dozen interfaith clergy members marched on the state Capitol Sept. 5, 2007 to urge lawmakers to take real steps forward toward affordable health care reform this year.

“We’re imploring our elected leaders to break the chains of ideology that prevent us from coming together to bring quality healthcare to the 6 million Californians who remain uninsured,” said the Rev. Dr. Jay Atkinson, parish minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Studio City.

Thanks not only to Rev. Atkinson, but to the other UU clergy who took the time to travel to Sacramento for this public witness: the Revs. Beth Johnson from Palomar (Vista), Claudene Oliva of Santa Cruz County, Vickie Combs of Sunnyvale, Lisa Sargent from Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, and Lindi Ramsden and Intern Minister Suzanne Marsh of the UU Legislative Ministry. They joined other faith leaders from the United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Episcopalian, Catholic, Jewish, and Islamic faiths to bring powerful stories of parishioners facing the crisis of unaffordable health care.

Rev. Oliva shared the story of Robert, a UU who suffered a major heart attack after many years of gainful employment. With his health prohibiting him from working full time at the job where he had been insured, he now pays for his & his wife’s insurance through COBRA. At $2100 a month, it is more than his monthly mortgage! (You can see Robert’s story, and many others at It’s Our Healthcare)

They offered prayers for healing and a call to action for California’s lawmakers to act now to provide affordable healthcare for Californians.

“We are each called by our faith, to care for one another -- each one individually, and as a society,” said Father Mark Hall, St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, Stockton. “Each of us here today has seen needless suffering caused by a healthcare system which does not care for us. And we are each here today to say enough – to say that we have waited long enough.

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