Only in America
Sitting in a balcony of the National Cathedral, I found myself most moved when the procession of clergy walked in, each in distinctive religious garb. A cardinal’s skull cap, a Muslim headress, a Yalmulke — and fifteen other men and women, each representing a distinctive faith….Greek Orthodox, Hindu, various protestant denominations.
Would this happen in any other nation? It is a powerful statement of America’s full embrace of religious freedom and pluralism.
Is Spiritual Serenity Impossible for Obama Right Now?
A dozen photographers, each with lenses as long as my arm, click furiously at Obama in the first pew. I can tell with my eyes closed if Obama has bowed his head in prayer because the sudden burst of clicks sounds like a swarm of cicadas. What is it like to be watched by the world while you pray?
He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands — A Universal American Hymn?
Watching the Children of the Gospel Choir sing “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands” and remembering that I, as a Jew, sang this in my elementary school, reminded me that there are, indeed, ways of speaking and singing about God that touch universal themes and can inspire many faiths.

He’s got you and me, brother, in his hands.
He’s got you and me, sister, in his hands.
He’s got everybody in his hands.
He’s got the whole world in his hands.

Most of the prayers by Christians are nonetheless words that can be embraced by many. The Archbishop Demetrios, the primate of the Greet Orthodox Church quoted from Matthew 22, but to highlight universal ethical teachings:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

In a way this is the American formula: From an explicitly Christian tradition but with a message that transcends Christianity.
The African American Spiritual Influence
I’ve never heard a more inspiring rendtion of Amazing Grace than that sung by Dr. Winsley Phipps of the U.S. Drum Academy — his fist raised in the air as he shouts “we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise” The African American spiritual influence has not been cloaked during this inaugural. Today there was a black gospel choir….He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands…. Dr. Phipps… and the Joseph Lowery’s benediction which began from portions of Lift Every Voice and Sing, known as the “Negro National Anthem.”
A Murderers Row of Pray-ers
They orchestrated many of their prayers at this service in an unusual and powerful way. Instead of having the clergy all stand at the Canterbury pulpit, they had a row of them standing about twenty feet away from President Obama, Michelle Obama, the Bidens and the Clintons and prayed directly toward them. They were prominent leaders of their faith, each one a person of spiritual grandeur, offering a wall of prayer for the first family.