Reverend Luke Palumbis
St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church
Stockton, CA
Sponsor: Rep. Richard Pombo, (R-AL)
Date of Prayer: 06/21/2006
One Minute Speech Given in Recognition of the Guest Chaplain:
Mr. POMBO. Mr. Speaker, I have the distinct honor of welcoming Father Luke Palumbis to offer the Morning Prayer in the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. Today marks the first day of summer and indeed the sun is shining down upon the Capitol as we open the morning hour, as we do each day the House of Representatives is in session, with a prayer to express our tremendous gratitude and to instill the strength to act resolutely and with sound judgment with the day's proceedings.
I am pleased to have Father Palumbis here to give thanks and prayer to the proceedings of the House. He has taken the time to fly from Stockton, California, where he serves the Greek Orthodox community of Saint Basil. This is a historic occasion as it is the first time an Orthodox clergyman from the west coast has given the Morning Prayer, and I am pleased he comes from California's 11th Congressional district.
A canonically ordained priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Father Palumbis graduated from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, in Brookline, MA, with a Master in Divinity in 2003, and is currently enrolled in a Master in Theology Thesis program at the same institution. Previously Father Palumbis attended the University of Portland, in Portland, OR, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and was a member of the university's intercollegiate basketball team.
Father Palumbis is married to his wife Eleni Palumbis and they are awaiting the birth of their first child next month. I wish them both the very best of health and happiness back home in Stockton.
Opening Prayer Given by the Guest Chaplain:
Heavenly Father, through your love for all of your creation, and your consummatory divine plan –– You have established a natural, communal existence, which symbiotically maintains fairness, serenity, shared support, concern for holistic wellbeing, and license from imposed control.
We thank you Loving Master that in accordance with this model of Your creation, our founding fathers established a foundation for the formation of a more perfect union; through the establishment of justice, the insuring of domestic tranquility, the providing for common defense, the promoting of general welfare, and the securing of the blessings of liberty.
We beseech You All Holy One, to strengthen our civic leaders, and our entire population of America, with the virtues of humility, courage, and perseverance –– so that today, we may actualize the poetic words of our Constitution –– not only as United States, but as united individual Americans, living in the union of God's creation. Amen.
To learn more about Members who have sponsored a Guest Chaplain, please visit the Congressional Biographical Directory