A few years ago we exchanged houses with a Baptist Minister and his family who lived just outside of Washington, in the township of Vienna. Rather like us in Amersham, their home was the last stop on their underground system. Every day we rode the ‘Orange Line’ into the city centre visiting Smithsonian museums, the Capitol building, the Cathedral or the Library of Congress. Washington is relatively small (say compared to New York or London) and no where was more iconic for me than the afternoon we spent at The Lincoln Memorial. We stood on the steps at the same spot upon which The Revd Dr Martin Luther King delivered his Dream Speech – I felt he was almost present!!
The challenge for all leaders is to rise to the responsibilities of their office with courage and integrity. The opportunity for all leaders is to fill their office with something of their personality.
Mr Biden, we are told, will begin his day, as a committed Catholic Christian, by attending Mass before he takes the Oath of Office. He has already shown us something of his personality during his eight years as Vice President under President Obama. He is a man who has known deep personal loss and exhibits exemplary warmth and humanity in his public persona. Perhaps as never before, in our lifetimes, this United States President comes into office at a truly critical moment. He inherits a country deeply divided and a world struggling with pandemic.
So, on a day such as this, Mr Biden and his team merit our prayers.
Back in 1956 another President, Dwight D Eisenhower, signed into law a bill declaring the phrase: In God we Trust, become the nation’s motto, and be printed on the nation’s currency. Our prayer is that such a motto also becomes Mr Biden’s reality and guiding star throughout these next four years.
No comments:
Post a Comment