The Office of the Chaplain United States House of Representatives

Reverend Lonnie Mitchell, Sr.

Bethel AME Church
Spokane, WA

Sponsor: Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, (R-WA)
Date of Prayer: 07/25/2017

One Minute Speech Given in Recognition of the Guest Chaplain:

Mrs. McMORRIS RODGERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to welcome Pastor Lonnie Mitchell today to the people's House. He accepted the call to ministry in 1985 under the AME church and came to Spokane, Washington, in 1991. He moved his young family and has been there ever since, leading his congregation under the theme to be "the cathedral of love, where everybody is somebody and Jesus is the center of attraction."

He also started the AHANA Business and Professional Organization, which was formed for persons of color. He started Unity in the Community in Spokane, which is now the largest multicultural celebration in the inland Northwest, 22 years strong. He has his
master's from Gonzaga University, which is our local Jesuit university,
but is a proponent of bringing faith and government together to build and sustain healthy communities.

It was great to have him here today.

Opening Prayer Given by the Guest Chaplain:

O Lord God, pour out Your presence and Your power upon this opening session of the U.S. House of Representatives. Please empower our leaders to deliberate, collaborate, and, when necessary, compromise for the good of our Nation.

As President Lincoln said: With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let this Congress strive on to finish the work they are in, to bind up the Nation's wounds... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among everybody and with all nations.

God, we the people in the land of the free and the home of the brave desperately need You now and forevermore. O that You would bless this session and the leaders in this House and all branches of our government.

Respectful of all faiths, in Jesus the Christ I pray. Amen.

To learn more about Members who have sponsored a Guest Chaplain, please visit the Congressional Biographical Directory