There is a remarkably diverse group of people praying for President-elect Obama around his inauguration.
Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the first openly Gay bishop elected in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, will give the invocation at the inaugural opening ceremony on the Mall Sunday afternoon.
Rev. Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist and Evangelical, and Rev. Joseph Lowery, a United Methodist pastor and major civil rights figure, will both participate in the inauguration on Tuesday.
At Wednesday's prayer service, the National Cathedral will host Sharon Watkins (Disciples of Christ), the first woman to lead a mainline Protestant sect; Ingrid Mattson (Muslim), the first woman to serve as President of the Islamic Society of North America; Reform Rabbi David Saperstein; Conservative Rabbi Jerome Epstein; and Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein.
I can just imagine Obama leaning over to Rick Warren on Tuesday and introducing Gene Robinson, saying, have you two met? I really think you might enjoy getting to know one another.
Or at the Washington Cathedral breakfast, having a chat with Mattson, Saperstein, Esptein and Lookstein, thanking them for their solidarity in this celebratory moment and continuing, if we can all come together for this occasion, what else can we come together on? Let us join together to think about peace in the Middle East.
As the inauguration excitement fades and the prayer services come to an end, will these leaders continue to pray for Obama? More importantly, will they and will we continue to join together on common ground?
That is my prayer.