News

Jim Wallis, Kirbyjon Caldwell to Pray at Inaugural Service

Update: T.D. Jakes will give the sermon at a service Barack Obama will attend on inauguration day.

Christianity Today January 16, 2009

President of Sojourners Jim Wallis and Kirbyjon Caldwell, who gave the benediction at President Bush’s 2001 inauguration, will offer responsive prayers at the Jan. 21 National Prayer Service that closes the inauguration, the inaugural committee announced today.

Update: Bishop T.D. Jakes will give the sermon at the prayer service Barack Obama will attend the day of inauguration, the Associated Press reports.

The Associated Press had written that a Muslim and Rabbis would pray, but no evangelicals had been announced at that service yet. Today, the committee sent out the full list of participants:

Reverend Samuel T. Lloyd III, Dean of the Washington National Cathedral, will welcome attendees to the event, followed by the invocation of Reverend John Bryon Chane, Episcopal Bishop of Washington.

Reverend Otis Moss Jr., Senior Pastor Emeritus, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio will provide the opening prayer, followed by a prayer for civil leaders delivered by Reverend Andy Stanley, Senior Pastor, North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, Georgia.

Scripture readings will be provided by Dr. Cynthia Hale, Senior Pastor, Ray of Hope Christian Church, Atlanta, Georgia as well as Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, New York City, and the Most Reverend Francisco Gonzalez, S.F., Auxiliary Bishop of Washington. Rabbi David Saperstein, Executive Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Washington, D.C., has been asked to deliver a psalm.

Responsive prayers will be given by six leaders:

–Dr. Ingrid Mattson, President, Islamic Society of North America, Hartford, CT

–Rev. Suzan Johnson-Cook, Senior Pastor, Bronx Christian Fellowship, New York City

–Rabbi Jerome Epstein, Director, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, New York City

–Rev. Carol Wade of the Washington National Cathedral

–Dr. Uma Mysorekar, President, Hindu Temple Society of North America, New York City

–Rev. Jim Wallis, President, Sojourners, Washington, D.C.

– Rabbi Haskal Lookstein, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurunm, New York City

–Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell, Senior Pastor, Windsor Village United Methodist Church, Houston, TX

The service will conclude with a prayer for the nation delivered by Donald W. Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., followed by a closing prayer provided by Bishop Katherine Jefferts-Schori, Presiding Bishop, Episcopal Church USA and a benediction by the Reverend Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee previously announced that Sharon E. Watkins, General Minister and President, Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) will deliver the sermon.

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