US Bishop reflects on A Sacred Trust ahead of midterms

Photo credit: Ted S. Williams/Associated Press

Bishop Mariann Budde, Episcopalian Bishop of Washington DC, has issued the following reflection, ahead of the US midterm elections which take place next Tuesday.

A Sacred Trust - Our call to love God and neighbour does not change with any election result.

As the midterm election draws near, the intensity of the campaigns is rising, along with real anxiety about what will happen on Election Day and beyond. Enormous amounts of money are being spent to sway the results. The stakes are real, and so is the strain of living with so much uncertainty and division.

Whatever news we wake up to the morning after the election, we will all need spiritual grounding. For Christians, that grounding is found in our identity in Christ. Our call to love God and neighbour does not change with any election result.

When I cast my vote by mail this week, I thought of a woman who wrote to the public radio program 1A about what her father taught her about voting. Her words have stayed with me as a reminder that voting is a sacred trust:

'When I was a child in the 1950s, my beloved father took me with him to vote. He stressed that this was important like church. We dressed to go to the poll at a local fire station. I retained vivid memories of the ceremonial dignity, a distant row of booths, each having a heavy maroon velvet curtain across the small booth. Papa briefly explained the issue to me and our responsibility. When we left, I held his hand and felt very proud. In the decades since, that memory goes with me and my father in my heart.'

If you have not yet voted, I encourage you to do so, and to carry that same sense of dignity with you. And in these final days, may we treat those with whom we disagree as neighbours, each one created in the image of God.

If you would welcome a place for quiet prayer on Election Day, the Episcopal Benedictine community in Omaha, Nebraska, is hosting an online prayer vigil from 9 am to 9 pm ET, with reflections from bishops and priests across the country. I will offer a reflection at 6.30pm. All are welcome.

I hope you make your way to church or other spiritual community on the weekend after the election. There is no better place to bring all that our hearts hold.

Whatever the days ahead bring, may we be people of prayer, steady in hope, and love for God and neighbour.

-Bishop Mariann

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Jeremiah 29:7