WASHINGTON (RNS) — President-elect Donald Trump has selected a slate of religious leaders to pray at his inauguration next week, although changes to planned worship services at the Washington National Cathedral and St. John’s Church will make it harder for the incoming president to leave his stamp on the other religious gatherings surrounding his swearing-in.
The list of religious leaders, according to an inaugural committee spokesperson, includes Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, who will provide the opening invocation along with the Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Offering the benediction will be Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University; Imam Husham Al-Husainy, who serves the Karbalaa Islamic Center in Dearborn, Michigan; Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who serves 180 Church in Detroit; and the Rev. Frank Mann, a priest from the Diocese of New York.
Several of the speakers have ties to Trump. Graham is a longtime supporter of the president-elect, having backed Trump since 2016. Sewell spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention, saying God plans to use Trump “for such a time as this,” in addition to hosting a roundtable with Trump last summer. Al-Husainy was one of multiple Muslim leaders who expressed support for Trump during the final month of the campaign, helping bolster the Republican’s surprising victory in Dearborn, home to a large but traditionally Democratic Muslim electorate that has expressed frustration with President Joe Biden’s robust support for Israel amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Others, such as Mann, ha …