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The Chaplain of the United States Senate is chosen to "perform ceremonial, symbolic, and pastoral duties." These responsibilities include opening Senate sessions with a prayer or coordinating the delivery of the prayer by guest chaplains recommended by members of the Senate. The Chaplain's prayer is referred to as "one of the Senate's most enduring traditions" in the official Senate pamphlet "Traditions of the U.S. Senate." The Senate Chaplain is also responsible for "hosting" Guest Chaplains on

Shortly after the Senate first convened in April 1789 in New York City, one of its "first orders of business" was to convene a committee to recommend a Chaplain, selecting the Right Reverend Samuel Provoost, Episcopal Bishop of New York. When the Senate moved to Philadelphia the next year, the Right Reverend William White, that city's Episcopal bishop was selected. In 1800, when the Senate relocated to Washington, D.C., clergymen from various Christian denominations continued to be selected, del

Unlike the Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, who must be elected to a two-year term at "the beginning of each Congress," the Senate Chaplain does not have to be reelected. Both the House and Senate Chaplains are elected as individuals, "not as representatives of any religious body or denominational entity." When a vacancy occurs, the Senate chooses a new Chaplain through a vote on the adoption of a resolution. According to a 2011 Congressional Research Service congressional

The question of the constitutionality of the position of the Senate Chaplain, has been a subject of study and debate over the centuries. Opponents have argued that it violates the separation of church-and-state and proponents have argued, among other factors, that the same early legislators who wrote the United States Constitution and its Bill of Rights, from which the position of "non-establishment" and church and state separation is derived, were the same ones who approved and appointed the ch

In addition to court cases, controversy regarding the Chaplain's position included a number of petitions to abolish both the Senate and House Chaplains that were submitted as early as the 1850s, for reasons including claims that the positions represented a violation of the separation of church and state and that the choice of chaplains had become too politicized. From 1855-1861, the election of Chaplains for the House and from 1857-1859, the election of Chaplains for the Senate were suspended, w