President Obama's Cabinet may be largely in place, but one level down, he faces gaping holes in the ranks he needs to fill if there is to be any hope of implementing his ambitious agenda on health care, the environment and much more.
Obamas on Easter: St. John's Episcopal
by Mark Silva and updated with service
President Barack Obama, his wife and two daughters attended Easter service this morning at St. John's Church, a favorite chapel of presidents past situated just across a sun-splashed, flowering park from the White House, the president's first church attendance in Washington since inauguration in January.
For Obama, who had a public falling out with his former longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago, at the height of a heated campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination last year, today's churchgoing is said to be only part of the search for a new sanctuary for the first family. Today's visit, the White House said, did not necessarily signal that choice. It's simply Easter.
The Rev. Luis Leon, who presides over the Episcopal St. John's, is more known for his sense of humor in the pulpita personally engaging pastor whose sermons are filled with current events and observationsthan the politicized preaching which got Obama's former pastor in trouble.
With a search underway for a new church for the Obama family in Washington, advisers have said that the vetting will be careful to consider the history of the church and its pastorsa measure of how troubling the Wright saga was for Obama, who publicly denounced the "incendiary'' words of the now-retired but former longtime pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ after Wright's railing about racism in America from the pulpit was publicized by videos on the Internet.
Since Obama left Trinity last year, he has been without an official house of worship, relying instead on a close circle of advisers and pastors for private counsel.
"What the president should do -- and I believe would do -- is find a church home that's good for his family," Jim Wallis, a progressive evangelical Christian who speaks with White House aides several times each day and Obama frequently, tells the Associated Press. "In the post-Jeremiah world, he can't just do that," Wallis said.
The Easter church service for the Obamas highlighted a particularly social weekend: Last night, the family left the White House for a private dinner at the Georgetown waterfront home of Valerie Jarrett, one of the president's senior advisers from Chicago. They returned past 11 pm EDT.
On Monday, they will host the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House.
On Tuesday, it is believed they will roll out the first puppy, a six-month-old Portuguese water dog named Bo, a campaign promise to the Obama girls from their father and a gift from Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.)not to mention a poorly kept secret on this gloriously sunny Easter weekend.
The church selection is serious business, however.
Since New Year's Day, the Obamas have only attended church services twice in Washington.
Two days before the inauguration, Obama visited 19th Street Baptist Church. And Obama and his family attended a private service at St. John's Church on Inauguration Day, a tradition for those about to be sworn in.
The Rev. Leon had welcomed the Obamas to the Episcopalian church which former President George W. Bush attended frequently, and noted then that every president since James Madison has worshipped at the church at least once, "some of them kicking and screaming."
The president will be looking for a quiet sanctuary, one where he and his family can worship without reading more than a light-hearted remark from the pastor in the papers.
Today, the first family left the White House in a motorcade at 10:48 am EDT for the one-block ride to the church.
Entering the church, the Obama girls wore matching light sweaters, the first lady wore a floral dress, the president a dark suit.
The Rev. Leon, rector, told the congregation that this was his 15th Easter service at the church.
In his sermon, he alluded to the poets, E.E. Cummings and Emily Dickinson, spoke of the New York Yankees and even made a shout-out to the president's picked University of North Carolina Tarheels, winners of the NCAA men's basketball championship.
The service was filled with songs from a choir and brass
ensemble. Among the selected hymnsAlleluia, Jesus Christ is risen today, Song of Praise, Come, Ye faithful, Welcome Happy Morning. The readings: Exodus 14:10-14, 21-25, 15:20-21; Acts 10:34-43; Mark 16:1-8.
Robert Black led a prayer: "Guide and bless us in our work and play, and shape the patterns of our political and economic life; we pray for Barack, our president, the leaders of Congress, and the Supreme Court, and all who are in authority; for Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and the Middle East, that all people may be filled through the bounty of your creation."
The president and First Lady Michelle Obama greeted parishioners during a "peace be with you'' sharing of hands.
They took communion.
A little after noon, the president and family left the church, with a large crowd gathered behind police lines. And the motorcade was back at the White House by 12:29 pm.
Reconciling Turkey, Armenia And Genocide
In the wake of President Obama's visit to Turkey this past week, officials there say they may be close to a breakthrough in their long-running dispute with neighboring Armenia. A big part of the controversy involves whether to describe the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, which Turkey opposes. Now there are signs that the land border between the two states may be re-opened after 16 years.
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