Hillary Clinton Sermon 'We All Have Different Gifts' At Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. On September 13, 2015
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Good morning. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. And especially for this occasion, a remarkable event that we are celebrating together. I am so glad that Chelsea and I could be part of it. I thank you for that invitation.
I was thinking, as Chelsea was speaking, how unpredictable, even serendipitous it turned out to be that we ended up at Foundry. Some of you may remember it was not too long after the inauguration. It was a Sunday. We were already getting kind of stir-crazy, and so we thought, “Let’s go to church.” Now, this was a long time ago — 1993. There had been a big storm in Washington. The drifting snow was stacked in the streets and on the sides. We had the idea that we would find a Methodist church and walk from the White House. I don’t know who was there that day. Some of you were very, very kind in bringing us in. This was the time before metal detectors and all of the hyper-security that we live with today. We just walked out of the White House followed by some bewildered Secret Service agents and made our way to church. And from that moment until this, we have always felt so welcome.
Chelsea has just described how much Foundry meant to her, and I can only echo that as her mother who saw how embraced she felt here in this congregation. This community — because indeed that’s what it is — was a place where we could worship, study, contemplate, be of service, get some good pastoral advice, and step outside all the commotion of life in the White House and Washington. That was very, very precious to us. Here we were, not “the First Family” — we were just our family. And we relished and cherished that time. We always have felt part of the Foundry family. …
As I was listening to Chelsea and remembering those early weeks and months here in Washington for us, and how thrilled I was that she found so much support here, I of course thought about my own Methodist church growing up in Park Ridge, Illinois, where I had the same kind of experience.
I am a Methodist both by birth and by choice. I was born into a Methodist family — parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, claiming to go all the way back to the coalfields hearing the Wesleys preach. Now, as with so much inherited family lore, I am sure the press will dive on that and try to figure it out. All I can tell you is what my grandparents told me." Read on.
