White House Holiday Photo Of The Day: First Family Attends Service At St. John's Episcopal

The Obamas take communion during mid-morning service at "The President's Church"...
The First Family walked this morning to attend the Choral Holy Eucharist and Sermon at St. John's Episcopal Church, located at the corner of 16th and H Streets, across from the White House. The day was bright, clear, and very cold as President Obama, First Lady Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha, clad in their Sunday best, strolled shortly after 11:00 AM through Lafayette Square Park, surrounded by their security detail, to "The President's Church," where every sitting president since 1816 has worshipped. (Above: En route to St. John's)

The Obamas have never formally joined a church in Washington, DC, and first attended services at St. John's on Easter Sunday in 2009. Regular churchgoers were being screened through metal detectors as the First Family arrived at 11:06 AM. Inside, the First Family sat in pew 54, the President's Pew, reserved for the chief executive's use when attending services. It has prayer stools covered in red velvet, with the names of past presidents embroidered in gold thread. At 11:28 AM, the Rev. Dr. Luis León, Rector, began his sermon, speaking about John the Baptist.

All four Obamas went up to the altar and took communion at the end of the service, before walking back to the White House at 12:10 PM.

The First Family will attend the filming of Christmas in Washington on Sunday evening, a TNT television special at the National Building Museum. It is a fundraiser for the Children's National Medical Center, whcih Mrs. Obama will visit on Monday. (Above: The First Family walks back to the White House after the service)

Interesting fact: The bell in St. John's bell tower is one of two by Paul Revere's foundry that are in Washington, both cast and installed in 1822. Of the two, St. John's bell is the only one that has been in continuous service since its installation. It weighs nearly 1,000 pounds, and was cast by Paul Revere's son, Joseph, at his Boston foundry in August 1822 and installed at St. John's on November 30, 1822.

From the pool report, on the sermon:
The sermon is about John the Baptist heralding Jesus as the real God. Priest likens it to a Saturday Night Live show he once attended in New York where Eddie Murphy warmed up the audience before the show. John the Baptist is performing that role. Priest goes on to talk about how we all become quickly disillusioned when things don't work out as we expect. But that can be a good thing, he said, if we learn to accept reality.

John the Baptist was trying to point toward the reality of Jesus as God. At one point, the priest talks about the expectations placed on Obama when he came into office. Many unfairly expected a messiah that could cure the U.S. of all its problems, and now we see it's not that easy. "This is not a political diatribe by the way. It's simply stating the obvious," he said, sparking laughter among the congregation.

Pool was Paul Barton of Gannett.

*Photos by AP/Pool