World | USA
President-elect's Washington church choice likely to be scrutinised
Churches in Washington, DC, have started extending invitations to President-elect Barack Obama and his family, touting their African-American roots, their ties to presidents past and to Obama himself.
- AP
- Published: 23:40 November 18, 2008
- Obama, McCain meet, vow cooperation
- Obama notes needed shifts in economic fix
- Obama following in Lincoln's footsteps with strong aides
- One call Obama's been dreading
- President-elect caught between unions and business
- Obama's election gives a symbolic boost to blacks
- Barack Obama resigns Senate seat
- Barack Obama reveals top priority
- Supremacists' plot to assassinate Obama foiled
McLean, Virginia: Churches in Washington, DC, have started extending invitations to President-elect Barack Obama and his family, touting their African-American roots, their ties to presidents past and to Obama himself.
The choices are abundant. Numerous, thriving congregations are an easy walk from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Just across Lafayette Square from the White House is St John's Church, an Episcopal parish known as the "Church of the Presidents", where presidents as far back as James Madison have worshipped.
St John's has a standing invitation: Pew 54 is the President's Pew, reserved for the nation's leader. Or he could choose, as many presidents have done, not to attend services at all. President George W. Bush, for instance, has only infrequently attended services in Washington, occasionally going to St John's.
Wright controversy
Whatever choice the Obamas make, it is sure to be analysed through the prism of Obama's relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who was Obama's pastor for 20 years at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Obama resigned from Trinity during the presidential campaign after inflammatory comments by Wright from the pulpit became a campaign issue. Nick Shapiro, a spokesman for Obama's transition, declined to discuss which church the Obamas might attend.
Related Links
Obama has spoken frequently about the importance of his Christian faith. In his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, he wrote that "the historically black church offered me a second insight: that faith doesn't mean that you don't have doubts, or that you relinquish your hold on this world... You needed to come to church precisely because you were of this world, not apart from it".
Despite those words, Obama has attended church sparingly in the past several months. Since winning the election, he has spent Sunday mornings at the gym. Many Washington-area churches hope that will change after he is inaugurated.
At Metropolitan AME Church, a historic, predominantly black congregation six blocks from the White House, senior pastor Ronald Braxton says parishioners have been buzzing about the possibility that the incoming president, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, might attend services with them.
Braxton said it would be good if Obama resumed worshipping at a congregation rooted in the black community.
News Editor's choice
-
Golf: Looking back with a sense of pride
Mohammad Juma Bu Amim, golf in DUBAi chief, is pleased with where the game is going in the region
-
Is Doha the new Arab political capital?
Qatar's bold policy stances elicit mixed reactions as the country eases onto Arab centre stage
-
6,000 cups and counting: Addicted to that tea
This cafeteria in Al Mamzar attracts thousands of customers daily, including the rich and not so rich
