Every Tuesday, while Kentucky lawmakers are in session, a call for unity and social justice is being sounded at the state Capitol.
The Kentucky Council of Churches, a coalition of more than 1,000 Christian congregations, leads a weekly gathering known as the Prayer in Action Days.
The Council's leader, Rev. Peggy Hinds, says other groups are joining the cause as participants take a biblical stand for fair treatment of all people.
"We're particularly interested in speaking on behalf of those Kentuckians who feel marginalized or oppressed, who are living in poverty – what Jesus called the least of these,” she explains. “Sometimes they don't have a voice, or at least a voice that's heard, because they don't have money and they don't have power."
Justice reform was the topic last Tuesday. This Tuesday it will be gun violence, with health care and disabilities, the death penalty, energy and the environment, and immigrants and refugees in the future.
Rev. Donna Aros of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Frankfort says she attends representing both her church and the grassroots citizens group Kentuckians For The Commonwealth.
She says it's beautiful that so many groups for a variety of reasons are joining together for the common good.
"We know we're not going to maybe change minds, but we want to change the atmosphere," she states.
Hinds agrees and says while those involved in the Prayer in Action Days will speak out against injustices, it's important they do so with civil discourse, especially given the political chasm in America.
"We're not trying to be divisive,” she stresses. “We're trying to work with our government officials and with everyone throughout the community.
“We want to engage people. We feel it's important that we speak on these issues and some of them are very divisive, but we try to do so in love. We don't attack people."
The prayer gatherings begin each Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in the Capitol Annex.