We are delighted that we were able to reschedule our General Meeting with Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, part of our series on interfaith friendships. The first woman to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., Bishop Budde gained national attention in her January 2025 inauguration sermon, when she appealed to President Trump to have mercy on those who may fear the policies of his administration.

Consecrated as the ninth bishop of Washington in November 2011, she serves as spiritual leader for the congregations and Episcopal schools in the District of Columbia and four Maryland counties that comprise that diocese. Prior to her election, she served as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. She earned a B.A. in history at the University of Rochester and both a Masters in Divinity (1989) and Doctor of Ministry (2008) from Virginia Theological Seminary.

Bishop Budde’s sermons have been published in several books and journals, and she is the author of Gathering Up the Fragments: Preaching as Spiritual Practice (2007), Receiving Jesus: The Way of Love (2019) and How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith (2023), which has been adapted into a young adult book and a picture book for young children, to be released in July 2026.

As part of our interfaith series, she will talk about her friendships with faith leaders in the Washington Metro Area and their joint endeavors to serve the common good, along with her own commitment to justice, peace, and the dignity of every human being.