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Who Is Mariann Edgar Budde: When US President Donald Trump attended a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral on his first full day in office Tuesday (January 21), the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, had an appeal for him: to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared”, including “gay, lesbian and transgender children” and immigrants.
Trump has signed a slew of executive orders, stating that male and female are the only two genders, and promising a crackdown on immigrants.
Who is the Bishop who has taken on the President, and what are the beliefs of the Church she belongs to? We explain.
In her 15-minute sermon, Budde said, “Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you… In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”
About immigrants, she said, “The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they – they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors,” said Budde.
She also reminded Trump that “we were all once strangers on this land.” “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands… Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.”
According to the Episcopal Diocese of Washington website, the 65-year-old Budde serves as “spiritual leader for 86 Episcopal congregations and ten Episcopal schools in the District of Columbia and four Maryland counties”, the first woman elected to this position.
Budde became the ninth bishop of Washington in November 2011. She has a BA in history from the University of Rochester, where she graduated magna cum laude. She holds a Masters in Divinity (1989) and Doctor of Ministry (2008) from Virginia Theological Seminary.
“Bishop Budde is an advocate and organiser in support of justice concerns, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons, and the care of creation,” the website says.
This is not the first time Budde has taken on Trump. In 2020, when Trump posed for a photo in front of Washington’s St John’s Church holding a Bible, amid the George Floyd protests, Budde had slammed the President. In an article for The NYT in June 2020, she wrote, “…Trump used sacred symbols to cloak himself in the mantle of spiritual authority, while espousing positions antithetical to the Bible he held in his hands.”
After her recent comments, Trump said in a post on social media platform Truth Social, “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”
What is the church she belongs to?
The service was being held at the National Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, an Episcopal church.
Presidential prayer services, held a day after the inauguration, have been held for several Presidents here — including for Trump (both terms), Joe Biden, Barack Obama (both terms), George W Bush (both terms), and his father George HW Bush.
Apart from this, state funerals for five American Presidents have been held here: Dwight D Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, George H W Bush and most recently, Jimmy Carter.
The Episcopal Church is a ‘mainline Protestant’ denomination, which is considered theologically liberal and progressive.
The Episcopal Diocese of Washington website says about its beliefs, “We do not believe the Spirit stopped speaking when the last page of the Bible was recorded. We believe that God granted us the gift of reason to see the influence of the Holy Spirit through our own experiences…”
About various social issues considered divisive in the US, such as birth control and homosexuality, the website says, “We believe that issues such as whether to use birth control are matters best left to the informed individual conscience. We know that there is grace after divorce and we do not deny the sacraments to those who have been divorced and remarried. We ordain women as deacons and priests. We believe that same-sex relationships can show forth God’s love as truly as relationships between a man and a woman. We believe that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression are made in the image and likeness of God.”
