Bishop Who Led Presidential Sermon Also Honored Matthew Shepard

Following the Right Rev. Bishop Budde’s sermon to Donald Trump in which she pleaded for mercy, unity, and compassion, we were reminded that Budde led a service honoring hate crime victim Matthew Shepard. She led the service alongside Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop and friend to the Shepard family.

Matthew Shepard attended the University of Wyoming in 1998 when he was murdered. Shepard was an out college student at a time (and place) when being so meant severe discrimination. He was brutally attacked for being gay and left tied to a fence post in Laramie, Wyoming. He died in the hospital six days later.

Twenty years after his death, Shepard still had not been laid to rest. Shepard’s original funeral saw protests by hate groups like the Westboro Baptist Church. His parents feared a permanent resting place would be desecrated, according to The Advocate. However, in 2018, the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. offered to hold a service for Shepard and then inter his ashes. Bishop Budde, who leads the diocese of D.C., and Bishop Robinson spoke at the public service for Shepard.

The National Cathedral is a dedicated Episcopal cathedral, although it does hold interfaith and secular services. Even so, Shepard was raised Episcopalian, and his interment serves as a symbol for healing the hate spread by conservative faith groups. “(Visitors) will see that this is a church that has learned from the example of violence that we need to stand and be counted as among those who work for justice and the full embrace of all God’s children,” Budde said in 2018.