As the Trump 2.0 administration continues to wreak havoc on the D.C. region and nation, faith leaders are among those stepping up to challenge it and seek remedies.
Within a few blocks of the White House is the First Congregational Church of Washington D.C., affiliated with the United Church of Christ, whose history dates back to the Abolitionist movement and the times just after the Civil War when it was involved in the founding of Howard University. The senior minister there is the Rev. Amanda Hendler-Voss.
She agreed to the following Q and A with me about how her church is responding and what she thinks all persons, including all persons of faith, can be doing in this crisis. (Disclaimer–I am a member of this church.)
Q. You open your services with a wide welcoming statement. Can you recount what it is you say?
A. Here at First Church our welcome is intentional: whether your heritage is Black or Latino, European, Asian, Native American or any other identity, you are welcome here. if you are gay or lesbian, bisexual or transgender, we welcome you. If you are female or male or nonbinary; if you are undocumented or afraid, if you are street smart or college educated, if you can’t pay the bills or have more than enough to share, if you are bone-tired or resolved, no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome into this shared experience of worshiping the God whose love knows no bounds.
Q, Please add a little bit about yourself, how you’ve come to be here.
A. After founding and co-pastoring Land of the Sky United Church of Christ in Asheville, NC, for nearly a decade, I decided to step back from ministry to write and engage in sacred activism. A year later, I felt the Spirit’s stir to return to pastoral ministry. When I saw that First Congregational UCC of Washington DC identified their multiracial/multicultural calling as a top leadership goal for their next pastor, I became interested in applying. My first Sunday in March of 2020 was our first Sunday worshiping completely online due to the pandemic, and it would be a full year before I would meet some members of the congregation. We were brought together in a year unlike any other, and I give God thanks every day for this incredible calling.
Q. How have you reacted to the steps that the new administration has taken since coming in?
A. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday we opted to worship with a sibling congregation, Peoples Congregational UCC, a historically Black congregation also in Washington, DC. We worshiped with them due to the multiple MAGA rallies (including Sunday afternoon) taking place at the Capital One Arena just blocks from our building. By strengthening the relationships we value in the work for justice, we are laying the groundwork for what is ahead.
We organized a webinar on workplace ethics for federal workers in UCC congregations across the DMV with a professor who studies Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We will be offering another meeting for federal workers this week as we seek to support them. We have developed standard operating procedures related to ICE raids as the administration’s mass deportation campaign has begun and the Sensitive Locations Memo has been rescinded.
Our congregation submitted information that strengthened the Central Atlantic Conference’s (UCC) action as part of a lawsuit against the Trump Administration stating that our religious freedom and right to worship freely are at risk now that ICE is free to conduct raids during religious services.
On Sunday we held a congregational conversation on what it means to be a Sanctuary Congregation in these times. We have attended partner meetings with local clergy and nonprofit organizations committed to the work of advocacy and justice and we are working in collaboration with them.
On Ash Wednesday we will participate with Bishop Barber II and Repairers of the Breach to march from the Supreme Court to the Capitol Building as a sacred act of witness and truth-telling. The DC Office of Justice and Witness (UCC) has released Advocacy Resources for the First 100 Days of this administration, which offer weekly actions across our denomination to advocate for a more just world and the dignity of every human being.
In February we celebrated Black History month even as members of our congregation have been forced to strip any mentions of it from their federal workplaces. In worship we address justice issues weekly, but we have also celebrated a baptism, reminding us of our baptismal vows to resist evil, walk in the ways of Jesus, to do justice, and to grow in faith.
Q. How has your congregation reacted?
A. Like many congregations in this region, we have many facing job losses or placed on administrative leave. However, the loss of personal livelihood is not the most difficult thing,
I believe. I believe the most difficult thing is watching the work to which they have dedicated their lives be eviscerated by this administration in a manner that reveals they are not seeking to trim the fat or save taxpayer dollars, the administration is rooting out civil servants to replace them with loyalists and taking a chainsaw to the good work of our federal government to feed the hungry, prevent war, and care for the refugee.
Jesus was a refugee in his childhood, and said clearly: What you do to the least of these, you do to me. The congregation is grieving. We are also resolved to act alongside others to slow down the damage, to advocate for justice and accountability, and to lift up the dignity of all people as human beings created in God’s own image.
Q. What is your church doing about it?
A. We are showing up at pop-up protests outside the Treasury Building, USAID, and the CFPB. We are coming alongside partner organizations on the ground with the most impacted people, supporting them and following their lead. We are also caring for the federal workers in our midst, whose faith provides a vital source of strength and hope in these times. We are loving one another and loving our neighbor as ourselves. In so doing, we love God.
Q. What is your message to the wider public in these times?
A. Churches in the DC metro region are canaries in the coal mine. As the scorched-earth tactics of eviscerating our federal government ripple out to other communities, such as farmers in the great plains, cities in the Midwest with considerable populations of federal workers, to our great National Parks, many will feel what we are currently experiencing here in the nation’s capital: these policies are death-dealing.
They have not solved inflation or helped the working poor. They do not lift up the best of who we are as Americans or invigorate democracy around the world. They do not support better public health outcomes or keep our children safe.
The actions of this Administration are death-dealing to all but the billionaires set to receive tax-cuts at the expense of those who rely on Medicaid. Now is the time when we must come together to lift our voices for a more just world. Lives depend upon it. In the words of that great protest song, “Keep your eyes on the prize. Hold on.”
