Reverend Martin B. Lavengood
Wesley Enhanced Living at Evangelical Manor
Philadelphia, PA
Sponsor: Rep. Allyson Schwartz, (D-PA)
Date of Prayer: 07/18/2007
One Minute Speech Given in Recognition of the Guest Chaplain:
(Ms. SCHWARTZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Ms. SCHWARTZ. Madam Speaker, it's my pleasure to welcome Reverend Martin Lavengood and to thank him for the prayer he just delivered, and to welcome his family and many residents of the Evangelical Manor who are here today.
Reverend Lavengood has a long and honorable history of service to the community. Prior to being ordained in 1991, Reverend Lavengood taught high school English in New York. Shortly after his ordination, he studied in Jerusalem as the first Roberta Rudin Scholar for Jewish–Christian Studies. After his experience in Israel, the reverend returned to the United States and became active in prison ministry while serving in parishes in New York and Indiana.
In 2003, Reverend Lavengood moved to Philadelphia where he became a chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. While working there, he developed an interest in ministering to people of all ages, especially the elderly. This interest led him to his current position as chaplain of the Wesley Enhanced Living at Evangelical Manor in Philadelphia, where he's honored, he says, to serve members of the World War II generation.
I commend Reverend Lavengood for his service to seniors and for taking time to come to Washington and offering this prayer before the House of Representatives.
Opening Prayer Given by the Guest Chaplain:
Lord God, we thank you for giving us the means to govern ourselves as free people. Keep us ever mindful of the rights and liberties which hallow our life. Watch over and protect all those who serve to defend them.
We pray especially for our representatives who serve in this chamber; endow them with your wisdom to choose the issues we must face; give them the courage and strength to make the difficult decisions; fill them with your charity that they may enter into a spirit of compromise; give them the grace to work for the higher good in their deliberations with other bodies; in all their efforts may they remember both the rich and the poor whom they are called to serve; shield them from the temptations of power which beckon incessantly; and at the end of the day may they enter into your rest, Lord God of Hosts.
Amen.
To learn more about Members who have sponsored a Guest Chaplain, please visit the Congressional Biographical Directory