 U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black was elected in 2003.
Posted on the official U.S. Senate website is:
"Chaplain's
Office - Throughout the years, the United States Senate has honored
the historic separation of Church and State, but not the separation of
God and State.
The first Senate, meeting in New York City on
APRIL 25, 1789, elected the Right Reverend Samuel Provost, the
Episcopal Bishop of New York, as its first Chaplain.
During
the past two hundred and seven years, all sessions of the Senate have
been opened with prayer, strongly affirming the Senate's faith in God
as Sovereign Lord of our Nation."
This was a continuation of the practice of the Continental Congress during the Revolution, as Ben Franklin remarked in 1787:
"In
the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible
of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection."
Beginning
with Senate Chaplain Bishop Samuel Provoost, who conducted George
Washington's Inaugural Service at New York's St. Paul's Chapel, all 62
Senate Chaplains have been Christian, though occasionally members of
other faiths have been invited to offer prayers.
The U.S. Senate Chaplain after World War II was Peter Marshall, who prayed:
"Our
liberty is under God and can be found nowhere else. May our faith be
not merely stamped upon our coins, but expressed in our lives."
On February 7, 1984, President Reagan addressed the National Association of Secondary School Principals:
"God...should
never have been expelled from America's schools. As we struggle to
teach our children...we dare not forget that our civilization was built
by men and women who placed their faith in a loving God.
If Congress can begin each day with a moment of prayer...so then can our sons and daughters." |
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