UMC Pastor Adam Hamilton to Deliver Sermon at National Prayer Service

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The Presidential Inaugural Committee has announced that the Rev. Adam Hamilton of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection will deliver the sermon at the National Prayer Service on Jan. 22 at Washington National Cathedral in the Capitol.

"I'm honored to have been asked to deliver the message for this service of worship," Hamilton wrote on his personal blog. "And, to be honest, I'm a bit nervous as well. I'm used to preaching before thousands of people each weekend, but I've never had the President of the United States and our nation's top leaders sitting on the front rows."

The UMC of the Resurrection, in Leawood, Kan., is home to 18,000 worshippers and is the largest of its denomination in the U.S.,

Hamilton shared that after receiving advice from the White House to make his 15-minute sermon "spiritual, inspirational and inclusive," he has decided to focus the theme of his message on the leader of the Bible's great emancipation story, presumably Moses and the Exodus account, in connection to the recently celebrated 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of Washington National Cathedral, which has hosted the National Prayer Service since 1933, said in a Presidential Inaugural Committee press release that his church feels "blessed" to have Hamilton deliver Tuesday's sermon.

"We are so blessed to be joined by leaders of many faiths for this prayer service to lift up our nation and our president," Hall said.

"To have represented the diverse faith perspectives of America within the Cathedral's nave is a sign of the distinct role that people of faith have to play in our national discourse and policy decisions," he added.

Hamilton is reportedly known for his centrist views, and has converted from Roman Catholicism to Pentecostalism before settling on the United Methodist Church.

The reverend, who was named among "10 people to watch in America's spiritual landscape" by Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly in 2000, is also a prolific writer, having authored 13 books which include Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White.