WHERE THE POWERFUL GO TO PRAY

THE DISTRICT'S ST. JOHN'S IS 'CHURCH OF PRESIDENTS'

"Fred, I'd love to get you in if I can . . . " the Rev. John C. Harper is saying into the telephone that never stops ringing these days as inauguration fever, that quadrennial malady marked by a passion to rub shoulders with the powerful, rages again.

The reason Harper's phone is overheated these days is that next Friday he will conduct an early morning prayer service preceding the inauguration of George Bush as president.

After you get in the president-elect and 239 of his relatives and the vice president-elect and his relatives, plus a couple hundred key dignitaries, there will still be a few seats left in the classic St. John's Church, across Lafayette Park from the White House, for those lucky enough to finagle an invitation.

In recent years, St. John's, which calls itself "the Church of Presidents," has turned up in the national spotlight every four years as the site of such inaugural prayer services. "We did it twice for Reagan," Harper recalls -- in 1980 and 1984.

The Episcopal parish was organized in 1815 to serve as a parish church for the president and his family -- helicoptering up to Camp David for the weekend not being an option then -- and every president since James Madison, including the nation's only Roman Catholic president, has attended.

"Kennedy came when I was installed as rector," Harper recalled in an interview this week. The two men had known each other at Harvard and when Harper came to St. John's, he invited his former schoolmate to attend "to keep our sign honest," the one about being the church of presidents.

"He said he had served as usher a couple times at weddings here" while he was a member of Congress, Harper said. "I supposed that counted, but then he came when I was installed."

In an era when Catholics routinely stayed away from non-Catholic services, it was a courageous thing for Kennedy to do.

Harper has preached on at least one occasion to every president in office since he has been at St. John's. "Johnson came, Nixon came once on Good Friday and I preached at the White House twice," he ticked them off.

Gerald Ford, a member of Immanual Church-on-the-Hill in Alexandria during his years in Congress, attended St. John's regularly when he moved to the White House, Harper said. Jimmy Carter played hooky one Sunday from First Baptist Church, where he taught a Sunday school class, to attend St. John's.

And Ronald Reagan came three times during his eight years -- the two inaugural prayer services "and one Sunday when the Naval Academy choir sang," Harper recalled.

Bush has said in one interview that he intends to become a regular at St. John's, but Harper is scrupulous about not presuming either on tradition or his longstanding friendship with the incoming president.

Inside the cream-and-white sanctuary of St. John's, a brass plaque on Pew 54 a third of the way back identifies it as the "President's Pew." And among the footstool-like kneelers under the pews, covered with the presidential seal worked in needlepoint, there is one with each president's name worked into the rich burgundy background.

But if St. John's is heedful of its traditions and its role in national history, its primary ministry is to less exalted citizens.

It has "about 1,000" members, according to Harper, most of whom drive past a number of other churches in the District, Virginia and Maryland to attend services.

There are four reasons people come to St. John's, Harper said. "One, we're a historic national church; two, preaching; three, music (10 percent of our budget goes for music) and four, a Christian education program" that has an average attendance of 75 children each Sunday, relatively high for a downtown congregation.

Members are almost stereotypically Episcopalian: government officials, doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers. But Harper has seen the church embracing a wider spectrum. "When I came, every member of the vestry {lay governing body} was a member of the Metropolitan Club. Now only two are . . . .

"We don't have a lot of black families, but we have some."

And, he added, "I don't think we're any longer the Republican Party at prayer." The church membership now is pretty well divided between the two political parties, he said.

St. John's makes a point of trying to serve people in its immediate community, who may or may not be a part of the Sunday morning congregation. A daily noon prayer service draws a couple dozen people every weekday. An Alcoholics Anonymous group meets every day.

There is a counseling center, a noontime organ recital on Wednesdays, and a weekly luncheon, open to the public for a modest fee, at which only French is spoken.

"We really have two congregations," Harper said. "We are involved with 23 different organizations . . . . Our emphasis is on outreach."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.