Episcopal leaders respond to former President Donald Trump’s election to second term

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church’s two presiding officers and other church leaders are responding to President Donald Trump’s election to a second term by emphasizing Episcopalians’ baptismal commitment to being witnesses in the world to Jesus’ message of love for one another and respecting the dignity of every human being.

“Regardless of our political allegiances, we must remember that God has called us in The Episcopal Church to seek and serve Christ in all persons. No matter the party in power, we are one church, and we will continue to fulfill our baptismal covenant by proclaiming in word and example the Good News of God in Christ, striving for justice and peace among all people, and protecting the dignity of every human being.,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said Nov. 6 in a pastoral letter to the church a day after the presidential election.

House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris also released a message acknowledging “the weight of what this moment represents” – both for herself as a Latina woman and for the church.”

“Today, our church is called to a distinct witness: to stand firm in our gospel commitments while remaining in communion with those who see the path forward differently,” Ayala Harris said. “In the days ahead, some in our church family will celebrate while others will experience deep fear and concern. Let us demonstrate to a watching world how Christians can model respectful dialogue and genuine fellowship even amid political difference. The bonds of affection in our church family run deeper than any ballot box could measure.”

After being voted out of office in 2020 at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic and an economic downturn had upended American life, Trump has returned four years later to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris by a decisive margin, after President Joe Biden, at 81, withdrew from the race in July over concerns about his age.

Trump, at 78, completed his political comeback this year despite being impeached twice, inciting the January 2021 riot of his supporters at the U.S. Capitol, facing numerous criminal and civil lawsuits, being convicted of 34 felonies, expressing admiration for autocratic foreign leaders, downplaying U.S. commitments to its democratic allies, threatening to punish his political foes, and amplifying sexist, racist and xenophobic sentiments in a campaign that centered on an increasingly dark vision of a broken America.

Some Episcopal leaders have expressed particular concern for the election’s impact on Episcopal Migration Ministries, or EMM. The federal refugee resettlement program, which EMM facilitates alongside nine other agencies, was decimated during Trump’s first term as part of his administration’s anti-immigration policies. Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric again was central to his 2024 campaign.

“Through Episcopal Migration Ministries, we abide by God’s command to welcome the stranger, and since 1988, we have resettled more than 100,000 refugees through a bipartisan program with a strong record of success,” Rowe said in his letter. “We urge President Trump and members of Congress to exercise compassion toward the immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees we serve and to know that, at every turn, we will stand for the dignity and human rights of all of God’s people.”

Bishops across the church also are issuing messages to their dioceses in response to the election.

“Given that the president-elect has pledged to make sweeping changes to our government, some are feeling uncertainty, even fear, about what that will mean, and others are looking forward to what they see as the best way forward,” Maine Bishop Thomas Brown said. He encouraged Episcopalians to continue working to preserve democracy, care for creation and care for “the least and lost, including immigrants and asylum seekers.”

Wisconsin Bishop Matthew Gunter called it a “radical act” to refuse to harden your heart in moments like this.

“Our politics are profoundly polarized. Much of the rhetoric has been reckless, dishonest, and dehumanizing. We find one another almost incomprehensible. Consequently, it is easy to feel wary of each other, leaving us all with a deep sense of dis-ease,” Gunter wrote in his message to the diocese.

“We are still called to ‘do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.’ We are still called by our baptism to ‘renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.’ This is true for all of us regardless of how we are feeling about this election. And we are all called to refuse to harden our hearts.”

Chicago Bishop Paula Clark lamented what she called “one of the most exhausting elections in the history of the United States.”

“No matter our feelings about the outcome of the election, I say that God is still the Alpha, and the Omega, the beginning and the end for all of us who follow Christ and aspire to live according to God’s covenants,” Clark told her northern Illinois diocese.

And in the Diocese of Ohio, Bishop Anne Jolly urged Christian unity over political divisions.

“We don’t look to politicians for our salvation, because we have a savior in the person of Jesus,” Jolly said. “And despite the rhetoric of the past weeks and months, the rhetoric that sought to divide us from each other, to pit us against each other, we know that we are called to unity in the body of Christ.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.