Gulf Coast Governors Call for Day of Prayer on Sunday

Four Gulf Coast governors are calling on residents to set aside Sunday as a Day of Prayer to pray for a solution to the oil spill and for citizens impacted by the disaster.

Alabama’s Bob Riley, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, Mississippi’s Haley Barbour and Texas’ Rick Perry all issued proclamations calling on prayer for the spill, which entered its 66th day Thursday.

“Throughout our history, Alabamians have humbly turned to God to ask for His blessings and to hold us steady during times of struggle. This is certainly one of those times,” Riley said in a statement.

Riley’s proclamation reads in part, “Citizens of Alabama are urged to pray for the well-being of our fellow citizens and our State, to pray for all those in other states who are hurt by this disaster, to pray for those who are working to respond to this crisis, and to pray that a solution that stops the oil leak is completed soon.”

Perry’s proclamation says it “seems right and fitting that the people of Texas should join with their fellow Gulf Coast residents” and others across the country and around the world “to thank God, seek his wisdom for ourselves and our leaders, and ask him for his merciful intervention and healing in this time of crisis.”

Barbour’s notes that the spill threatens the “livelihoods of our fellow citizens, the environmental beauty of our coast, and our quality of life.” Jindals’s says “Louisianians all across the world are united in hope for an end to this catastrophic event and pray for” the coast’s recovery.

(The full text of the proclamations are contained at the end of this story.)

Southern Baptist Convention messengers meeting in Orlando, Fla., June 16 passed a resolution calling on churches and Christians “to pray for the end of this catastrophe and for the homes, lives, cultures, and livelihoods of those in the Gulf Coast region.” The resolution also made a statement regarding the environment, asserting, “Our God-given dominion over the creation is not unlimited, as though we were gods and not creatures.”