White House Security Blocks Washington’s Episcopalian Bishop from Holding a Vigil at Her Church

“We as people of faith are here to stand with you and for you.”

The Rev. Mariann Budde speaks down the block from St. John's Church.Alex Brandon/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Monday, President Donald Trump tear-gassed an assembly of peaceful demonstrators just outside the White House so he could awkwardly struggle to hold a bible during a photo op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

On Wednesday, Trump-authorized federal police closed off a portion of 16th Street just north of the church, about a block from the White House, which kept clergy from being able to use their house of worship.

Bishop Mariann Budde, who had assailed Trump’s Monday visit as a “symbolic misuse of the most sacred texts of our tradition,” planned to hold a vigil in front of the church to show solidarity with protesters. But a new security perimeter, extending almost a quarter of a mile out from the front of the White House, blocked her access and forced her into the street. A crowd still gathered, but away from its envisioned location and with it being difficult for most of the crowd to see or hear, the event lost momentum.

Protesters on the scene voiced frustrations with how they believed Budde and her church have overshadowed their demonstration, saying she and the Episcopalians did not speak for them. Budde rejected this, to which they responded by asking “Then why are the cameras focused on you?”

“We as people of faith are here to stand with you and for you,” she said, before taking a seat on the street pavement and beginning a longer discussion.

 

The unanticipated conflict and conversation might not have happened had the perimeter still been configured to allow access to St. John’s.

“We felt the need to interact and talk with them,” Rev. Paula Clark, a senior official in the Washington diocese, told the Episcopal News Service, explaining why the sit down unfolded.

With the vigil abandoned, the discussion happened as a crowd built-up in front of the nearby Washington headquarters of the AFL-CIO. Protesters handed out water bottles and left snacks and other supplies for anyone to take freely as the temperature hit 90 degrees.

Other clergy members showed up in solidarity. One, Russ Whitfield, a pastor at Grace Mosaic D.C., led a satellite prayer for people unable to see and hear what was happening at the front of the crowd. “It’s a little frustrating,” Whitfield said of the vigil being pushed away from St. John’s. “But man, it’s a little chaotic right now. We’re just trying to be flexible.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate