On Tuesday, just before the new year’s legislative session begins at the State House, a citizen will pick up a curved ram’s horn and send a blast of sound echoing throughout the marble rotunda.

If the shofar doesn’t get their attention, then maybe state officials will tune in when they hear their names ring out.

As part of a prayer vigil by the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition, a Roman Catholic, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist and a Muslim will be among those issuing a call for prayer. And religious leaders will step to the microphone to call out the names of the governor and the other general officers, each member of the congressional delegation, every member of the House and Senate, and all of Rhode Island’s mayors. Up to 250 people are expected to attend.

The goal is to let elected officials know there is a coalition of people from different faiths praying that they make the right decisions in these tough economic times, said Marty Cooper, community relations director for the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island. “We are there not as an enemy of the elected officials or to be hostile toward them, but really to offer support,” he said.

James Jahnz, representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, said, “We can act as a moral beacon for our elected officials.”

Formed in July, the coalition is part of a national effort to “fight poverty with faith.” The goal is to cut poverty in half over the next 10 years. Amid foreclosures and layoffs, that task is only growing more difficult. But Rabbi Alan C. Flam, of Brown University’s Swearer Center for Public Service, said the economic crisis only makes the task more urgent.

State officials are facing a budget deficit of $357 million — the nation’s largest deficit as a percentage of state spending. And in a letter inviting elected officials to the vigil, the coalition said, “We know that this coming session will require difficult decisions.” But the coalition reminded officials that they “will be helping to shape the future of Rhode Island and its people, including families with children who depend upon state assistance for a variety of needs such as food, health care, education and shelter.”

Coalition members are concerned about cuts in areas such as the RIte Care subsidized health-care program. But they also talk about job creation and tax policy. “This isn’t charity that we are asking for. We are asking for public policy that not only supports people but promotes a healthy economy,” Rabbi Flam said. “This is a larger issue about making the kinds of structural changes that really ask the question: What will it take for Rhode Island to be competitive, to be viable as a state with an economy. And I think we are going to have to put everything out on the table.”

Rabbi Flam said the face of poverty is not necessarily that of a homeless man sleeping under a bridge. Many of the poor in Rhode Island are children and members of “working families who can’t make ends meet,” he said.

The Rev. Donald C. Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, said poverty is not just an issue for cities. Some think residents of towns like East Greenwich and Barrington “walk on streets of gold,” but as a former minister at a Baptist church in East Greenwich, he knows that town has “some serious pockets of poverty” and “every community across our state has people in need.”

Cooper said, “We must help those in need, not turn our backs on them. This is when those people are calling upon us. This is the hour for us to really think what is morally right.”

“And, to make the right tough choices” added the Rev. Betsy Aldrich Garland, of Beneficent Congregational Church in Providence.

efitzpat@projo.com