25 Who Inspire | Mariann Budde

 

Editor’s Note: Good Faith Media’s “25 Who Inspire” list appears in the July-September issue of Good Faith Magazine.

 

Rev. Mariann Budde
Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington

By Nathaniel Jung-Chul Lee

 

If Christianity is, above all else, a religion of love, even a scandalous love of enemy, then there are few leaders who better embody the heart of our faith than Mariann Budde.

Bishop Budde became a household name on January 21, 2025, when she advocated for “mercy” on behalf of the marginalized in her sermon at the National Prayer Service. In the aftermath, conservatives censured her remarks as advancing radical left-wing propaganda. That was certainly not the case. Meanwhile, many progressives enshrined her as a near-iconic figure in a time of political darkness. Few are more deserving of such enshrinement, but I am just as certain she was in no way motivated by a desire for public canonization.

Rather, I think she was simply motivated by one thing: love.

Yes, love for those on whose behalf she spoke. But also, a love that extends even to President Trump and a desire to spare him the harm he might do to his own soul.

During the years I served as a priest under Bishop Budde’s care, I witnessed a leader who sought tirelessly to build bridges through love wherever she could, even when such efforts carried risks or proved imperfect. She consistently encouraged clergy to engage with and learn from Christians outside our own ecclesial context, especially communities most Episcopalians instinctively dismiss. For example, she regularly walked us through resources from the evangelical megachurch world and spent part of a sabbatical personally visiting evangelical megachurches throughout the D.C. metro area.

Keep in mind that many of these churches and pastors would challenge her right, as a woman, to serve as a priest at all, with some even questioning whether she was “saved.” And yet she went, not as an apologist or an adversary, but from a genuine desire to witness the work of God’s Spirit wherever it might be found.

“Our imaginations have been compromised,” she said recently in a conversation with Pádraig Ó Tuama, “and we need to find ways to expand our circles of belonging.”

In a moment when the progressive movement is often tempted to define itself by what it is against, Mariann Budde is showing us how to “overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21). And if Christianity is right that love is stronger than hate, stronger even than death, then the way of love she points us toward is one we must all take seriously.

Rev. Dr. Nathaniel “Nate” Jung-Chul Lee is priest-in-charge of St. Paul’s Parish in Brookfield, Connecticut.