All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., announced it will not use President-elect Donald Trump’s name in prayer, alleging it could lead to “legitimate trauma” for those offended by his views.
In an open letter recently posted by Mike Kinman, the rector of the Episcopal church, he said the church will indefinitely change their policy, praying instead for “our leaders” in lieu of referring to the president directly.
“If you come to All Saints this Sunday, you’ll notice that we have removed the proper names from our prayers for those in authority,” he wrote. “Whereas before we prayed for ‘Barack, our president,’ we are now praying for ‘our president, our president-elect, and all others in authority.’ This practice will continue for at least the near future.”
Trump’s rhetoric in the past and policy stances on issues like immigration could be too much for some parishioners to handle, according to Kinman.
“We are in a unique situation in my lifetime where we have a president elect whose name is literally a trauma trigger to some people — particularly women and people who, because of his words and actions, he represents an active danger to health and safety,” he continued. “This presents a challenge. We are rightly charged with praying for our leaders … but we are also charged with keeping the worshipping community, while certainly not challenge-free, a place of safety from harm.”
Kinman went on to question whether saying Trump’s name in prayer would “compromise the safety of the worshipping community,” defending his position in a second open letter.
“We noticed as we got closer to inauguration, our sense of this trauma in the community grew so we decided to go into a listening period — and while that was going on to remove all names (not just political leaders but bishops) from the prayers of the people … but still pray for those people by office (this is actually the liturgical norm of the Book of Common Prayer),” he said.
Kinman explained that they have a priest trained as a therapist that specialized in trauma, adding he believes the church should be a “safe space.”
“We can agree that Jesus loves Donald Trump and that we all should pray for him,” he wrote. “And we also know that Jesus stands with and as those who are most marginalized, traumatized and abused.”
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