(RNS) — President-elect Donald Trump’s transition workforce is reportedly planning an interfaith prayer service the day earlier than his inauguration, the place individuals can worship alongside the businessman and his spouse, Melania.
However those that wish to be a part of have to weigh the worth of prayer: Tickets to the service will probably be awarded solely to those that donate at the least $100,000 to Trump’s inaugural ceremonies, or who increase $200,000.
Earlier this month, Axios cited a seven-page prospectus that listed the service alongside a number of different donor-only occasions, equivalent to a “cupboard reception” with Trump’s nominees and “candlelight dinner” with Trump and Melania.
In accordance with the report, if a donor offers $1 million or raises $2 million, they’ll earn six tickets to the suite of inauguration occasions.
Officers for Trump’s transition workforce didn’t reply to requests to substantiate the service. No particulars about the place the occasion will happen or who will probably be concerned had been specified within the prospectus.
The morning of Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, the president-elect sat for a prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, a historic location throughout Lafayette Sq. from the White Home. The church, also known as the “Church of the Presidents,” later grew to become generally known as the positioning the place Trump posed with a Bible through the Black Lives Matter demonstrations on June 1, 2020.
Among the many racial justice demonstrators forcibly faraway from Lafayette Sq. and the encircling space simply earlier than Trump’s Bible photograph op had been a seminarian and an Episcopal priest who, on the behest of the native Episcopal diocese, had been handing out water to protesters from St. John’s patio. On the time, the incident prompted outrage from the Rt. Rev. Marianne Budde, who oversees the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, telling Faith Information Service she was “horrified” by the occasions of the day.
“Trump Vance Inaugural Committee Advantages” primarily based on donation quantities. (Picture through Trump Vance Inaugural Committee Inc.)
A consultant for St. John’s declined to substantiate whether or not they plan to host one other inaugural service for Trump. Texas Pastor Robert Jeffress, a longtime Trump supporter who preached the sermon titled titled “When God Chooses a Chief” throughout Trump’s 2017 inaugural service, advised RNS final month he had not but been requested to do the identical this go-round, although he famous he’s very “smitten by his election.”
Trump could properly hear from Budde once more this yr, this time in a worship service on the Washington Nationwide Cathedral, which historically holds an inaugural prayer service, normally in shut partnership with whichever presidential candidate received the election. In 2017, Trump sat for a 70-minute service on the cathedral that featured Budde, in addition to a Catholic archbishop of Washington and a neighborhood imam, amongst different non secular leaders.
The choice to host the occasion in 2017 drew criticism from Episcopalians, together with the Rev. Gary Corridor, the cathedral’s former dean, who stated Trump “violates any potential norm of Christian religion and apply.”
The Cathedral introduced earlier this yr it will be holding a “Service for the Nation” on Jan. 21 and that Budde will probably be preaching, no matter who received.
“This is not going to be a service for a brand new administration,” the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, the Cathedral’s present dean, stated in an announcement launched in October. “Relatively, whichever get together wins, this will probably be a service for all Individuals, for the well-being of our nation, for our democracy and the significance of the core values that should undergird our democracy.”
The Trump transition workforce didn’t reply to repeated requests concerning the president-elect’s plans for the service or whether or not he plans to attend.
In the meantime, different teams are making ready their very own worship companies. Final week Sean Feucht, an evangelical Christian musician and conservative activist who has advocated for Christian nationalism, revealed in a promotional video plans to host a “Revive in 25” worship service, by which Feucht stated “worship goes to pave the way in which” for Trump’s inauguration.
However quickly after asserting the service’s location at St. Joseph’s, a historic Catholic Church on Capitol Hill, the church’s priest, the Rev. William H. Gurnee, wrote to RNS in an e-mail that he had not granted permission for the usage of the church. “Whereas I used to be requested to host the occasion, I knowledgeable the organizer that I wanted extra info and it was mistakenly reported that ultimate permission was granted,” Gurnee wrote.
Gurnee added, “It’s my feeling that this occasion can be higher hosted at one other location.”
Feucht appeared to acknowledge the mixup in an X submit on Thursday, lamenting “warfare” he insisted was “coming in opposition to” him and his workforce to host the occasion. In a separate submit revealed Friday, Feucht stated the service was nonetheless occurring however famous in an connected video that the placement was “TBD.”
