In nation’s capital, Trump’s cuts and funding freezes spur pastoral-care crisis

WASHINGTON (RNS) — The Rev. Michele Morgan, the head rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, strives to be a “non-anxious presence” for the congregation she serves. It’s an important trait for any pastor, but especially for one who serves a church that sits a block or so from the U.S. Capitol and includes members performing high-stress jobs within the federal government.

But over the last three weeks, as President Donald Trump’s administration has initiated sweeping cuts, funding freezes and work stoppages across the federal government, Morgan’s job has suddenly gotten harder.

In an interview last week, Morgan said she frets over federal workers in her church who say their life’s work may disappear at any moment. She’s receiving frantic requests for pastoral care, such as from one person who had to furlough three-quarters of a team at a nonprofit that works in foreign aid. And as Morgan tried to leave church on a recent evening, she was stopped by a parishioner who recounted the difficulty of having to call people abroad and inform them the aid they rely on has been halted.

“Worry is the watchword around here,” Morgan said.

Ministering to anxious, fear-stricken congregations is rapidly becoming a shared experience for religious leaders who work in and around Washington, D.C. Clergy are preaching sermons of encouragement and having private conversations with congregants concerned about their own livelihoods and those they work with, fielding worries that range from paying children’s college bills to potential deportations of family members.

The Rev. William H. Lamar IV, pastor of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Washington, estimated that around 60% to 70% of the people in his congregation are connected to the government in some way, either as federal employees or as contractors. When the government has furloughed workers in the past, he said, his church has tried to offer financial aid.

The Rev. William H. Lamar IV, top, and Rev. Colette Thomas, right, pray with a parishioner during Palm Sunday services at the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

Lamar said his church intends to again offer those services, pledging to stand with his congregation spiritually, emotionally and economically.

“Some people are positioned to do something else, but the majority with whom I have spoken, who are in the most anxious place, are not sure about their economic security beyond their federal employment,” he said.

RELATED: Faith-based groups challenge Trump orders in two court cases

But while previous experiences provide a blueprint, Lamar argued the current situation is different from past crises, not only in scale but also because he believes the layoffs are “needless, unnecessary” and “unconstitutional.” He voiced palpable frustration with the impact on his congregation, outraged by those who have cheered on the decimation of the federal government.

“This is a con game,” Lamar said. “Getting rid of federal employees does not solve a problem. It inflicts pain. This is designed to inflict pain on human beings, and whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, whether you voted for Trump or not, I would hope that there are not people who delight in inflicting pain on other human beings.”

Bishop Derek Grier, founding pastor of Grace Church in Dumfries, Virginia, said his multicultural church is starting to budget and plan for what people may need, including preparing its emergency team with psychologists, just as it has in previous crises.

“During many of the government shutdowns, we’ve had to help people with their mortgages, we’ve had to help people put food on their table,” said Grier, who estimates more than half of the congregants of his independent evangelical megachurch are either government workers or contractors, and “a good number” are active military members.

Bishop Derek Grier speaks at Grace Church in Dumfries, Virginia. (Photo courtesy Grace Church)

“To have more than half your congregation receive notices to resign or face the risk of losing a job, is a super, super big deal,” he said on Thursday (Feb. 13). “We are already putting aside extra funds for the potential crisis ahead. We’re also beefing up our food pantry.”

He’s pastored through other traumatic times but said “this one’s a little different than the past crises,” including the 9/11 airplane strike at the Pentagon and the 2002 D.C. sniper attacks.

“It’s easy to look at the reduction in government in a purely intellectual way but, as a pastor, I have to look at it in terms of how it impacts lives of individual people,” he said. “And, no matter what side of the aisle you are on, we’re all in the same boat, and people are being impacted. So we need to pray for one another and pull for one another, and we’ll get through this.” 

Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, said he’s hearing from an array of Washingtonians, including church employees and congregants, who are facing rapid change in a city where the federal government is so dominant that he calls it “a cornerstone of the economy and of people’s employment here in D.C.”

Lynch said they are trying to respond to personal questions about their ability to make rent and mortgage payments while also determining how to help others.

“People are afraid. People’s lives are being disrupted,” he said. “They’ve been thrown into consternation by the dramatic number of changes that are coming at them very fast.”

Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb. (Courtesy Dobb)

Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, rabbi emeritus of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland, said his house of worship is one of many across the Washington metropolitan area, as well as the country, that is affected.

“Members of my own congregation are being let go of their longtime federal jobs simply because they performed well as directed by their supervisors in previous administrations,” he said on Tuesday of the 400-household organization. “The community came together just this Sunday with over 100 members for the first of a two-part exploration on how do we rise to meet the moment.”

Dobb said the congregation is considering how to assist at-risk federal workers and contractors as well as how to support immigrants and creation care “and other core religious concepts, which have sadly become politicized along a partisan divide when, as we read it, Scripture suggests otherwise.”

Some clergy started working to prepare their congregations and themselves soon after the election.

The Rev. Sylvia Sumter, senior minister of Unity of Washington, D.C., a multicultural congregation affiliated with the New Thought movement, said she began talking to her multiethnic congregation in November about resiliency and staying positive and more recently has preached a sermon series with themes such as “How can I shine my light in the midst of darkness?”

The Rev. Sylvia Sumter. (Courtesy photo)

“I’m just trying to encourage people to hang in there, not to really panic with each day’s events,” she said, “to be able to be grounded and centered so that we each can make the choices that are best for us to make, and we will hold the highest good for all concerned.”

The Rev. Amanda Hendler-Voss, senior minister of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, said the climate in Washington has prompted changes in sermons, songs and gatherings outside of worship times, including a recent “Ethics in the Workplace” confidential webinar.

“It’s a time of incredible uncertainty, and therefore it is a time of increasing anxiety,” Hendler-Voss said. “And it’s also a time when I think people are wrestling with their own ethical and moral commitments in light of the sort of vision that is being thrust upon the civil service.”

The situation also has affected how Hendler-Voss preaches and what the congregation sings.

“You don’t want to go in with ‘Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You’ when you know people are barely picking themselves up off the floor to be able to get into the church service,” she said. “It’s a time of tremendous spiritual tenderness. People’s hearts are aching and when we select music, we do that accordingly.”

Still, on Sunday the congregation sang “This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it,” which Hendler-Voss described as “a little bit of a risk — right? — but it’s also a resolve that we will delight in one another.”

RELATED: With federal funds stopped, local faith groups plan to redouble private efforts to settle refugees