[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11091]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      WELCOMING THE GUEST CHAPLAIN

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I am delighted to be here with my 
senior colleague, Senator Jack Reed, to welcome Geralyn Wolf, the 
Bishop of the Episcopal Archdiocese of Rhode Island, who shared with us 
the prayer this morning.
  I wish to share with my colleagues what a wonderful addition she is 
to our Rhode Island community. She has served in Kentucky and in 
Pennsylvania, but she has been in Rhode Island for many years and has 
been devoted to our community, particularly to the needy in our 
community, to the point where at one point she spent 30 days living as 
a homeless person in order to see firsthand what the resources were to 
support people when they faced the burden and the sorrow of 
homelessness and to inform her actions as the bishop of our diocese.
  She is keenly interested in the Sudan and works with priests who are 
helping to bring Christianity to those areas as the vehicle for peace 
amidst some of the worst and most horrific violence on the face of our 
planet.
  It gives both Senator Reed and myself great pride that she has come 
down to Washington today to open the Senate. It is my hope, and I am 
sure Senator Reed's as well, that during the course of our 
deliberations today we will be informed by the hopes and the sentiments 
and the confidence and the blessings she expressed.
  I thank the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I join my colleague Senator Whitehouse in 
welcoming Bishop Wolf to the Senate today. I commend Senator Whitehouse 
for his invitation. Bishop Wolf is not only a pastoral leader in our 
community, she is also a great community leader. She not only preaches 
the gospel, she lives the gospel.
  As Senator Whitehouse indicated, she went on the mean streets of 
Providence, and there are such streets in every town in this country, 
to experience firsthand the travails and the troubles of people just 
trying to get by. That experience informed her ministry and informed 
her public positions, and we thank her for that. She has a global 
vision as well as a vision in Rhode Island. That global vision is a 
world inspired by American actions that is peaceful and progressive and 
finds opportunity for all.
  So on behalf of the people of Rhode Island, I wish to thank her for 
her service, and I thank her especially for the grace she has brought 
to us today and has brought the State of Rhode Island as a result of 
her service.

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