Chaplains for the United States Congress

On May 1, 1789, the United States Congress elected the Reverend William Linn, a Dutch Reformed minister from New York City, to be the first chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, appropriating five hundred dollars from the federal treasury to pay his salary. During the period when Congress first met in the new capitol of Washington, D.C., the House and Senate chaplains regularly led Christian services every Sunday in the House Chamber. In 1860, Rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall was the first Jewish clergyman invited to open a House session with prayer. Both the House and the Senate have continued to regularly open every session with prayer.

Taken from The American Patriot’s Bible