Alleviating poverty is a crucial component to the church's mission, the Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church said on Wednesday.

"Healing the worst of the poverty in this nation is intrinsically connected to restoring human beings to right relationship with the rest of creation," Schori said to a group of conference participants in New Jersey.

"We're here to do justice, and love mercy," she continued. "We're here to walk humbly with God and bring good news to the poor. That good news of justice and mercy looks like the ancient visions of the commonweal of God where everyone has enough to eat, no one goes thirsty or homeless, all have access to meaningful employment and health care, the wealthy and powerful do not exploit the weak, and no one studies war any more."

"It includes the work of building community and caring for the earth, both of which are essential to the health of a spiritually rooted person, in right relationship with God and neighbor," she added.

Schori's remarks were made during the April 27-30 "Called to Serve: The Church Responds to Domestic Poverty" conference in Newark, N.J., which was designed to explore the church's role in addressing domestic poverty.

Sponsored by Jubilee Ministries, Episcopal Community Services in America and National Episcopal Health Ministries, the conference comes at a time when the so-called Great Recession has elevated poverty levels in the U.S. to their highest in nearly ten years.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau nearly 300 million Americans, or 13.2 percent of the population, were living in poverty in 2008. Reports from Bread for the World state that more than one in seven households in the country experienced hunger or were at risk of hunger during the same year.

Unemployment rates throughout 2009 were some of the highest since the 1980's, with current numbers at 9.7 percent.

According to Charles W. Fluharty, president and CEO of the Rural Policy Research Institute, the church is "one of the few anchor institutions that is left" in rural and even urban America that can deal with such issues effectively.

"I would argue that if God's church could unite rural and urban poverty people together to move God's kingdom forward domestic policy would look different in the United States," Fluharty said to conference participants on Thursday, according to Episcopal News Service (ENS). "The church could do that."

In 2009, the Episcopal Church's General Convention passed resolutions calling for programs to be established that address domestic poverty. The Episcopal Church in New York currently operates a full service community hospital and two nursing homes.