San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
House chaplain says prayer amid rioting
As Rear Adm. Margaret Grun Kibben, the chaplain to the U.S. House of Representatives, made her way through the echoing halls of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, she could feel a charge of anticipation in the air. It was an auspicious day: Lawmakers were meeting in joint session to formally approve President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, a historic moment — and, thanks to the outgoing president’s refusal to concede, an atypically contentious one.
But Kibben had her own reason for feeling an unaccustomed excitement: It was her third day on the job.
As she walked through the Capitol, Kibben, 60, a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister who had been sworn in Jan. 3, peeked out a window and saw a swelling crowd of Trump supporters massing at the East front of the building. She thought little more about it than what she’d said in her prayer before the House that morning: America is enduring a time of “great discord, uncertainty and unrest.”
She hurried on to the House Chamber for the joint session, where she found a seat on the right side of the main aisle.
Her placement didn’t represent any particular political leaning. “When I go to church, that’s where I usually sit,” she told Religion News Service two days after the siege. She wasn’t even supposed to be sitting there: She was so new, no one had told her that she and her Senate counterpart, the Rev. Barry Black, have designated seats during joint sessions of Congress.
It was from there, about an hour later, she observed a “flurry of activity” around House leadership as House members, now separated from their Senate colleagues into their respective chambers, debated the election results. Within seconds,
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others were whisked away.
Then, word came: The crowds outside had turned into a violent mob and were storming into the Capitol. It was time to evacuate.
As the work of lawmakers ground to a halt, Kibben’s began in earnest. For Kibben, who previously served as the U.S. Navy’s chief chaplain before becoming the first female chaplain to serve the House, it was an opportunity to do what she does best: offer comfort to those in crisis. A House clerk asked if the chaplain could offer a prayer.
Kibben, who has served in combat, was not rattled. Instead, she set aside the “escape hood” she’d been given, gathered herself and prayed “God’s covering and a hedge of protection around us.”
Capitol police began swiftly escorting lawmakers and House staff out of the room shortly thereafter. As others concentrated on getting out, Kibben concentrated on them: She began working the column of evacuees, offering what comfort she could.
Once in a secure location and as insurrectionists broke into lawmakers offices and engaged in clashes with police that would leave five dead, Kibben was asked to pray again. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.”
She prayed for a “covering of peace and shelter” and said prayers for those ransacking the Capitol — that those “who felt so strongly against us” might understand that the lawmakers they decry ultimately want precisely what the attackers insist they were denied: “That our legislative process is appropriate and legal and representative.”
As she finished, the room was quiet.