Churches confront mass federal layoffs

Key points:

• United Methodist churches across the U.S. are responding to the Trump administration’s large-scale job cuts and suspension of federal funds.
• For many congregations, that has meant providing prayer, pastoral care, support groups and other forms of aid for people grieving job losses. Some also are engaging in protest to stand up for federal workers.
• Many United Methodist churches also are adjusting their budgets to account for laid-off members’ strained finances.

Even as Toria Herd faces an uncertain future in her career working with Head Start, she knows she can count on her congregation at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church to have her back.

“I just have really appreciated the outpouring of support,” said Herd, who has a doctorate in developmental psychology and works with the federal early childhood education program in jeopardy under the Trump administration.

“Even my friends and family who don’t live in D.C. right now are not really understanding how bad the vibes are in the city. So, I think, having a community that sees you and understands the stress — and also understands how bad things feel right now to everyone in the city — is really meaningful.”

Her congregation is among the United Methodist churches across the United States stepping up to support federal workers, contractors and others harmed by the Trump administration’s large-scale job cuts and slashing of government services.

For these churches, the past two months have brought expanding disaster as their members face loss of income and, in some cases, online harassment, while ministry partners that could help fill the gaps deal with a loss of federal grants. That has left United Methodist church leaders scrambling to provide comfort and mitigate the damage through prayer, pastoral care, job-search help and budget adjustments that support their financially strained membership. Some United Methodists also have joined in nonviolent protest and lobbied lawmakers on behalf of federal workers.

At the same time, United Methodist leaders also recognize they have an enduring message of God’s love to share at this moment. 

“We are in a crisis,” said the Rev. Erik Alsgaard, pastor of Community United Methodist Church in Crofton, Maryland, near D.C. “A crisis is a chance for the church to be the church. By that I mean, it’s a chance to show love and forgiveness and, when possible, grace and mercy. But as 1 Corinthians 13:13 says, ‘the greatest of these is love.’”

For many United Methodists, embodying God’s love means supporting people hurting right now.

The Rev. Stephanie Vader, senior pastor of Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, emphasized that federal workers are patriotic and hardworking people — not the do-nothings of caricature.

“I cannot stress enough how people in my church don’t take federal jobs unless they are in love with their country and really want to be in service because, honestly, a lot of them could make a whole lot more money in private industry,” she said. “But it is a ministry for them. It is a deep, deep passion, and it is a deep part of their practice of loving God and loving their neighbor.”

Some 60 members at the church — which stands four blocks from the U.S. Capitol building — have seen their lives upended by the federal purge. When the cuts began, church leaders worked to pair federal workers and contractors in the congregation with members willing to provide a listening ear and other support.

Activating advocates

 

Jerome Hinkle, at right, stands outside a congressional office building where he joined fellow members of Capitol Hill United Methodist Church in advocating for the D.C. budget in jeopardy because it was not included in the continuing resolution to fund the federal government signed into law March 15. Photo by Jerome Hinkle, Capitol Hill United Methodist Church.

Jerome Hinkle, a member of Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, is a lifelong D.C. resident.

But he had never been inside a building on Capitol Hill until earlier this month when he joined fellow church members in visiting congressional offices to advocate for his hometown’s funding.

The District faced a $1.1 billion hit under the continuing resolution, signed into law March 15, that funds the federal government for the next six months. While D.C. residents had paid the taxes that fund the city, Congress still approves its budget during the appropriations process.

Usually, stopgap spending bills include language that allows D.C. to continue operating under whatever budget the city has approved, but that language was omitted this time.

“It seemed like they were trying to take our tax money and just put it somewhere and not let us use it to take care of our city,” Hinkle said. “I don’t think that’s right. I really don’t. So, I got an opportunity to go to the Rayburn Building and go talk to some senators, some congressmen. And I did that, and I like it.”

The Senate passed a standalone bill to allow D.C. to access its funding. The House is expected to take up that bill this week. To take effect, the bill will need passage in the House and Trump’s signature.

While the fate of the bill is still uncertain, Hinkle said he is committed to doing what he can to help his hurting city — including advocacy to lawmakers directly.  

Hinkle, who serves on his council and volunteers with Capitol Hill United Methodist’s Food and Friends daily breakfast ministry, also expects the church to continue to do what it can to help. He now offers a listening ear to a church member who has lost her job as part of the federal layoffs.

“We are the heart of God in the neighborhood,” he said. “We are the church, and everybody’s always welcome.”

“We had a strong response on people saying that they had things to give,” said Ryan Clements, the church’s director of discipleship and service. “So, it was clear that people wanted to help and to care in some way.”

Getting church members affected by the cuts to ask for help proved more challenging, Clements acknowledged. “A lot of people we were talking to said, ‘I’m hurting, but I’m sure there’s someone who’s hurting more than me, and I don’t want to be a bother.’”

Still, church leaders pushed ahead with the pairings — recognizing that both the need and the eagerness to help are real.

Herd is glad she now has someone with whom she can talk about her worries. “It’s very encouraging to know that these members of CHUM-C, whom I never met before, are thinking about me and praying for me.”

For the Rev. Donna Claycomb Sokol, senior pastor of Mount Vernon United Methodist Church in downtown Washington, both prayer and binding up the broken are key. She prays regularly for laid-off and furloughed employees as well as those still employed but living with the anxiety that they could see their life’s work disrupted at any moment. She and other church members also have engaged in public protest and changed the church marquee to proclaim, “We Stand with Federal Employees.”

“And I pray for our administration to see the deep pain and destruction they are causing,” she said. “I also remind our congregation often how much I want to know what they are going through so I can pray even more specifically or show up more tangibly.”

The mass layoffs — led mainly by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency — already have sparked chaos, anger, fear and legal challenges across the U.S. Meanwhile, little evidence exists that DOGE is achieving its asserted goal of reducing waste, fraud and abuse.

Whole sections of agencies are being eliminated with seemingly little thought, said the Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli, senior pastor at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington. She added that career civil servants often are given only a 15-minute window to clean out their offices before they must leave the property.

Foundry has formed a support group for federal workers and contractors. The church also has been pulling together congregants who might have expertise that is helpful to people affected by the cuts, and created a liturgy that aims to help ground grieving congregants in their faith.

“As a resident of D.C. and pastor of Foundry, it has felt like a vengeful, invading army has moved into our home and is gleefully (waving around a chainsaw) cutting people off from meaningful work, from life-sustaining resources and from medical research that could save lives,” she said. “People will starve to death and die of diseases in places around the world and in the United States because of what is taking place right now.”

According to The Associated Press, federal judges have fully or partially blocked actions related to DOGE, federal funding and federal workers in nearly 20 cases with more still pending. Federal agencies have the authority to reduce their workforce, but federal law details a process to do so. In many cases, judges are finding that the administration simply ignored the law.

Two judges have ordered the reinstatement of probationary federal employees fired at DOGE’s instigation, but so far most agencies are only putting those employees on paid-leave status. Another federal judge ruled March 18 that DOGE likely violated the U.S. constitution in its dismantling of USAID and blocked further cuts to the agency. However, that ruling stops short of reversing USAID’s job terminations. In the meantime, the administration is appealing these and other rulings.

Meanwhile, the cuts continue across the federal government, affecting services as diverse as the national parks and nuclear security.

Those cuts are having an impact well beyond D.C. Oak Grove United Methodist Church in Decatur, Georgia, has a number of members who worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where nearly 1,300 people — 10% of the workforce — have been forced out. The church also has members weathering cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as at United Methodist-related Emory University, which like other research universities has seen National Institutes of Health grants halted.

Some church members who are research scientists also have been subject to online harassment, said the Rev. Beth LaRocca-Pitts, the church’s senior pastor.

The church has set up a support group and hired a professional counselor to work with members experiencing the pain of the federal contraction and targeting scientific research.

“It’s a very distressing situation because it does seem to be affecting so many people from so many sectors,” LaRocca-Pitts said. “It’s very difficult to figure out. I think all we can do is encourage our people to support one another, to listen to each other, and to be compassionate towards each other.”

Virginia Conference Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson and other conference leaders joined in a pastoral letter to federal workers dismissed from their jobs that also invites those grieving job loss to receive solace at United Methodist churches. Virginia long has been home to more than 144,000 federal employees.

“We know you are hurting, confused and angry,” the conference letter says. “We also know that you are gifted, educated public servants with valuable experience and hearts wired for public service and the common good. We also know that God is not done with you yet.”

Floris United Methodist Church, in the D.C. suburb of Herndon, Virginia, has seen many of its church members lose their jobs because they were federal employees, contractors or workers at nonprofits supported by federal grants.

The 3,500-member church has held a worship service to serve as a time of lament, as well as “Holy Conversations” to provide spiritual support to church members. Debbie Cali, the church’s director of serve and connections ministries, is also organizing practical support focused on offering free job-search assistance as well as job leads. 

“The individual/family impact is just beginning to set in,” said the Rev. Gina Anderson-Cloud, the large congregation’s lead pastor.

“Some people are pursuing or exploring bankruptcy, while others are frantically looking for jobs in a now-flooded job seeker market. In our ministry settings, we are also seeing increased needs.”

Leaders agree The United Methodist Church can help in this time. But neither the denomination nor fellow religious bodies have the capacity to replace all the services provided by the U.S. government, said Ken Ow, who serves on the General Council on Finance and Administration board

Ow, a member of North Bethesda United Methodist Church in Maryland, worked for 37 years in finance for different federal agencies before retiring in 2006. One of his last roles was as budget officer for the Human Genome Project that helped improve medical practice. He said that project alone cost a half a billion dollars, substantially more than The United Methodist Church’s entire budget for the next four years.

Herd, the Capitol Hill United Methodist member, expects the losses will have ripple effects far beyond people who work directly with the federal government.

“Even if it hasn’t impacted you personally yet, you can’t turn away from what’s happening,” she said. “We need people to stay informed but also resilient. We can’t give way to the hopelessness.”

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.