Mariann Budde, Episcopal bishop who rebuked Trump during prayer service, plans to step down
An Episcopal Church bishop who drew national attention for rebuking President Donald Trump in person during last year's inagural prayer service sermon plans to step down in 2028.
Bishop Mariann Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington announced her decision in a Saturday letter, stating that a new bishop should be elected when her term ends.
“I have not come to this decision lightly or alone, and it will not be easy to say goodbye to the diocese I love,” Budde, 66, wrote. “The process, however, is only beginning.”
“The election of your new diocesan bishop will take place at the regularly scheduled Diocesan Convention on January 29, 2028. The consecration and ordination will be on June 3, 2028, which is when my tenure as your bishop will end.”
Budde pledged that she “will do everything in [her] power to ensure that the diocese is as strong and healthy as possible for this leadership transition.”
“I hope that you know that serving as your bishop is one of the great blessings of my life,” she wrote. “I am praying for all involved, and especially for the one God is preparing to serve as the tenth bishop of the Diocese of Washington.”
At Washington National Cathedral’s Service of Prayer for the Nation, held the day after Trump began his second term in January 2025, Budde implored Trump directly during her sermon to show mercy to groups such as LGBT individuals and illegal immigrants.
“In the Name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said to Trump, who was seated in the front row. “There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some who fear for their lives.”
“The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat-packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens, or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”
Progressives praised Budde’s sermon, while conservatives criticized what they viewed as divisive, partisan rhetoric.
Rob Pacienza, senior pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was among the critics. He told The Christian Post last year that Budde’s comments were not “really a sermon” but “a lecture that really came across as mean and divisive.”
“I think the irony was she attempted to preach on unity, but her rhetoric and her very unwelcoming spirit — from the beginning to the end of her message — actually created more division in the end,” Pacienza said.
“She was advocating for transgenderism. She was advocating for open borders. She was advocating for lawlessness in America. She was advocating for an administration to embrace sexuality that is against God’s design.”
Earlier this year, Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) received a sculpture honoring Budde’s rebuke of Trump. The sculpture, “Bow of Burning Gold,” was created years earlier by artist Murray Dewart.
Last month, VTS held a ceremony for the sculpture and announced the publication of Have Mercy: Following Jesus in Politically Perilous Times, a collection of essays honoring Budde’s remarks.
