Important Action Item: Write to Congress Today

From the PC(USA) office of Public Witness:  As members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), we are called by Christ to care for the most vulnerable among us. From the Hebrew prophets to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Scripture consistently commands us to feed the hungry, protect the poor, and uphold justice for those on the margins. This moral imperative is central to our Reformed tradition and affirmed in PC(USA) social witness policy, which urges the church to support systems that nurture human dignity and economic fairness.

Right now, Congress is considering a budget reconciliation package that deeply contradicts these values. The House Agriculture Committee’s proposal includes historic cuts to federal food and healthcare programs, totaling nearly $1 trillion in reductions over ten years. If passed, this bill would:

• Slash $296 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—the largest cut in the program’s history,
• Eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which protects families and seniors from extreme weather,
• Impose new barriers that would deny food assistance to older adults aged 54–64,
• Shift significant costs and administrative burdens to already under-resourced state governments,
• End federal support for states that offer healthcare to immigrants with legal standing in the United States—and remove federal eligibility for food and health programs for these individuals,
• Expand oil and gas drilling while eliminating investments in clean energy—threatening public lands and environmental justice.

These changes will harm children, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, low-wage workers, and immigrants—those already struggling to make ends meet.

Our faith compels us to resist this injustice. The PC(USA) affirms that access to food, healthcare, and essential services is a human right and a reflection of God’s justice and compassion. In our 1997 policy, A Call to Restore the Public Purpose of Welfare, we affirmed that balancing the budget through cuts to critical social programs—while preserving tax breaks for the wealthy—is morally indefensible.

As Isaiah proclaimed:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to lose the bonds of injustice… to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house?” (Isaiah 58:6–7)

Now is the time for Presbyterians to raise their voices in defense of our neighbors.

Contact your Representative and urge them to vote no on the House Agriculture Committee’s Budget Reconciliation Proposal.

Tell Congress Today: We will not stand silent while the most vulnerable among us are made to bear the burden of budget cuts.

Let us act in faith and solidarity, remembering Jesus’ words:

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)

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Churches Gather Around the World in Vigil for LGBTQIA+ Solidarity

“Gender violence is an evil that must be stopped collectively,” said the Rev. Daniela Di Carlo, pastor of the Waldensian Church in Milan and organizer of national prayer vigils across Italy in honor of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), which falls on May 17.

The Waldensian Church in Italy is one of four denominational partners of the PC(USA) in Southern Europe. Others include the Portuguese Presbyterian Church, the Spanish Evangelical Church (also Presbyterian) and the Greek Evangelical Church, and comprise the Southern Europe Partnership Network. Of these, the Waldensian Evangelical Church in Italy has been one of the most vocal on issues relating to LGBTQIA+ equity and inclusion. 

Di Carlo believes that forming alliances between churches can build a world where differences are resources. She serves on the Italian National Commission on Faith, Gender and Sexuality, an ecumenical Protestant advocacy group

"Every person is deeply loved by God and was created in God’s image and likeness,” said Di Carlo. “Women, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community and all those who do not fit into the norm can help churches and theologies become inclusive.”

According to Di Carlo, vigils, prayers and services dedicated to the victims of homobitransphobia remind people of faith of the hope they must have and the work they must do to end violence and create a world of welcome and love. “As we work together for the day in which no woman is killed, no gay rejected by his family, no [transgender person] attacked in the street, no differently-abled person mocked, let us pray and begin to build, with the help of Jesus Christ, that possible world made of welcome and love,”

In addition to planning and promoting the May 17 vigils, Di Carlo has developed an ecumenical liturgyand a preaching resource to be used by churches across the world in honor of the day which can be found among other ecumenical resources on pcusa.org. 

The International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia was established in 2005 to commemorate the day in 1990 when the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases. Like the PC(USA), DiCarlo explained that the Waldensian Evangelical Church in Italy has a long history of advocating for gender and sexuality issues dating back to the 1970s, when it began to speak at the Agape Ecumenical Center about faith and feminism in 1974 and later faith and homosexuality in 1980. In 2010, the Waldensian Evangelical Church Synod in Italy decided to bless same-sex couples. As the 2025 vigil draws attention to gender- and sexuality-based fear and discrimination, Di Carlo says the organizers are focused on issues that transgender people face in Southern Europe.

A responsive greeting opens the liturgical resource for these international vigils with a litany that calls all Christ’s disciples into the work of faithful witness for God’s just and inclusive realm:

“Ci chiami, come hai chiamato le donne alla croce.

 Ci chiami, come hai chiamato I dodici …

 Ci chiami, come hai chiamato la folla,

 Ci chiami, come hai chiamato I tuoi amici ."

(You call us as you called the women to the cross. You call us as you called the twelve. You call us as you called the crowd … You call us as you called your friends …)

“Mentre ci muoviamo, concedici il coraggio e la grazia di esserti testimoni fedeli.”

(As we move, grant us the courage and the grace to be faithful witnesses to you.)

“A lot of churches in Italy on May 17 organize a vigil as a public event of witness by those Protestant churches combating homobitransphobia,” said Luciano Kovacs, international global ecumenical liaison in the Interim United Agency of the PC(USA). Last year, Kovacs and others invited Di Carlo to serve on the steering committee of the Rainbow Pilgrims of Faith, an informal network of members of churches within the World Council of Churches that advocates on behalf of LGBTQIA+ equity. Kovacs, who supports the mission partnerships and networks of the PC(USA) in Europe and the Middle East, will be attending the May 17 vigil in the Waldensian Evangelical Church in his hometown of Turin, Italy. 

Having formerly served as area coordinator for Europe and the Middle East for the PC(USA) since 2019, Kovacs highlighted how LGBTQIA+ issues in Europe and the Middle East became a focus after the 223rd General Assembly (2018) when a resolution was passed to celebrate the gifts of people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in the life of the Church that directed “mission co-workers and ecumenical representatives to advocate for justice and equality for all God’s people in ways appropriate to their cultural and ecclesiastical context.” Since then, Kovacs has been working with the Rainbow Pilgrims of Faith, the organizers of vigils for the International Day against Homobitransphobia and the Sarajevo Open Center among other non-profits to support LBTQIA+ concerns and advocacy across Europe.

For further theological reflection on transphobia, go here.

For information on the LGBTQIA+ advocacy work within the PC(USA) by the ACQ+E Committee, go here. 

Other advocacy groups include the Covenant Network of Presbyterians and More Light Presbyterians.

Original link to PC(USA) news story