About the Senate Chaplain

The chaplain is an elected officer of the U.S. Senate. In addition to opening daily sessions with a prayer, the chaplain is available to provide spiritual counseling and guidance to members and staff. The chaplain meets with senators, assists Senate staff with research on theological and biblical questions, and holds a weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast. The Office of the Chaplain is nonpartisan, nonpolitical, and nonsectarian. To date, all Senate chaplains have been of Christian denomination, while guest chaplains have represented many of the world's major religious faiths.

When the Senate first convened in New York City on April 6, 1789, one of its first orders of business was to appoint a committee to recommend a candidate for chaplain. On April 25, the Senate elected the Right Reverend Samuel Provoost, Episcopal Bishop of New York, as its first chaplain. Provoost served as the Senate’s chaplain until Congress moved to Philadelphia in the winter of 1790. Reverend William White, the first Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania, served as chaplain until Congress established its permanent home in Washington, D.C., in 1800.

The Senate regularly elected chaplains until 1857, but competition among senators to have their preferred clergyman fill the post prompted a temporary change in procedure. Following the lead of the House of Representatives, the Senate began inviting local clergy to conduct opening prayers and preach the sermon at Sunday services, which they did without pay.

Two years later, the Senate opted to once again elect a chaplain as a full-time officer of the Senate. As Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts explained, “The plan [of rotating clergy] is a very poor substitute for the former plan of having a Chaplain of the body, to whom we can look and consider as such; a Chaplain who would become acquainted with us, and who would know the interests and wants of the body.” Since that time, the Senate has continued the tradition of electing a full-time chaplain.