A nine-hour prayer festival is set to take place on the National Mall in Washington on Sunday as part of the Trump administration\u2019s program of events to celebrate America\u2019s 250th birthday.<\/p>\n
The event, titled Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving<\/a>, is billed as a celebration of America\u2019s Christian history. The prayer marathon lists Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Speaker Mike Johnson as featured speakers, along with dozens of other public officials, musicians and faith leaders.<\/p>\n The event will be part of the Trump Administration\u2019s Freedom 250 program, a sweeping agenda of festivities<\/a> to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n It is common for presidents and administrations to host prayer festivals and faith-based events. Unlike his recent predecessors, however, Mr. Trump has openly courted evangelical nationalism<\/a> and brought a higher level of conservative Christian participation<\/a> into White House events.<\/p>\n Along with public officials, Sunday\u2019s prayer festival is scheduled to feature more than a dozen faith leaders, almost all of them evangelical Protestant. Central to the event, organizers said, is a celebration of the nation\u2019s religious roots and a hopeful return to its Christian principles. According to the program, the Rededicate 250 event will also feature a message from President Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope and pray that this will be a historic moment to rededicate our country as one nation under God,\u201d said Brittany Baldwin, a senior policy adviser and coordinator of the America 250 program, in a recent webinar for the National Faith Advisory Board.<\/p>\n Among the few non-Protestant voices are the retired Archbishop Timothy Dolan<\/a>, who led the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and Meir Soloveichik<\/a>, rabbi at Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City.<\/p>\n