Eight years after leaving office, former U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor was back at the Capitol on Thursday, this time to help run the National Prayer Breakfast.
The Arkansas Democrat is head of a new foundation tasked with overseeing the annual event, which typically attracts the president, cabinet members, lawmakers as well as religious leaders, business titans and members of the diplomatic corps.
For decades, a conservative evangelical organization had overseen the breakfast at the Washington Hilton, charging thousands of people $175 or more in recent years to bow their heads with government bigwigs.
It was hard for reporters to determine precisely how the tickets were allocated or where the money was spent. Over the years, organizers had turned the gathering into a days-long event, with a variety of meetings during the week.
Although traditionally a nonpartisan event, it had grown more contentious in recent years. Then-President Donald Trump used the event in 2020 to criticize those favoring his impeachment, showing the audience a large-type, one word newspaper headline from that morning's newspaper: "ACQUITTED."
The event also had drawn a large Russian contingent in recent years. Maria Butina was among the guests in 2017; she would later plead guilty of conspiracy to act as an illegal foreign agent.
The new, post-covid event is smaller, cheaper and closer to the corridors of power. Each lawmaker is invited and is free to bring a guest.
Held in the Visitors Center of the U.S. Capitol the past two years, it's a "more intimate setting," President Joe Biden noted during last year's event.
At the prayer breakfast, Pryor said, "We need to think about the things that bring us together, not the things that tear us apart."
"This year, really, the theme's going to be unity and reconciliation," Pryor told the Democrat-Gazette.
He hoped the event would "bring people together to really pray for the president, pray for the country," he added.
Pryor, who attends First Assembly of God in North Little Rock, participated in a weekly bipartisan Senate Prayer Breakfast during his two terms in office and served repeatedly as co-chair of the annual event under Republican as well as Democratic administrations.
The lawmaker's own spiritual journey began during his teenage years.
While in high school, "I kind of felt that God was sort of pulling me his direction, if you will. I just, on my own, started to read the Bible and spend a lot of time contemplating and reflecting and, ultimately, I decided that I believe God in the Bible, I believe that Jesus is the son of God and accepted that, and it's just been a wonderful experience since then," Pryor said.
Originally known as the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, it was launched in 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's first year in office. Since then, each of his successors has participated.
Guest speakers, over the years, have included Mother Teresa in 1994, U2 lead singer Bono in 2006 and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2009.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., who has served as the annual event's Republican co-chair, said the scaled-back version more closely resembles the "original, very, very early breakfasts."
"I'm excited about it," he said. "I think it's a good change."
While the annual breakfast is a public event, with every word broadcast on television, the weekly prayer breakfasts are small and private and enable a bipartisan group of 15 or 20 lawmakers to have fellowship in an informal setting, he noted.
"Once we get the prayer requests, we sing a song together. Then we hear the speaker give words about their faith. And then, at the close, we hold hands and say a prayer," he said. "So this is how you get to know each other and eat breakfast together in a way that's totally different from your professional life and understand each other better. So I think it's very, very positive from that standpoint."
Pryor's new role in the event pleases Boozman.
"I'm so glad he is involved. He is a person that, from the first day that he joined the Senate, was very active in the prayer breakfast," Boozman said. "He, for many years, led the Democratic side and did a great job, so I feel very comfortable with him representing all of us, trying to make sure that this really adheres to what we want: A time of prayer, a time of sharing and, certainly, to leave the politics at home."
U.S. Rep. French Hill, a Republican from Little Rock, was among those on hand this year. He was joined by Rick Bezet, founder and lead pastor at New Life Church in Conway.
Earlier in the week, Hill spoke at International Religious Freedom Summit's Kick-Off Breakfast.
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack also attended Thursday's prayer breakfast. In addition, he hosted a "spiritual heritage tour" for roughly 75 Capitol visitors Wednesday night, which included a stop at the Congressional Prayer Room.
Former U.S. Rep. Brooks Hays, a Democrat from Arkansas and a one-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention, introduced the resolution in the 1950s that ultimately led to the room's creation, Womack noted.
Along the way, the group bumped into House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Womack said.
Like Boozman, Womack is pleased to see Pryor's involvement in the prayer breakfast.
"Mark has been a longtime advocate and leader for the congressional prayer breakfast, no question about that, and highly respected among his peers," Womack said. "He's a dear friend of mine, and I truly appreciate the commitment that he made a long time ago to ensuring that this event endures and is meaningful in its purpose."
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark. (right) helped lead a spiritual heritage tour at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday night, with stops in the rotunda as well as the Congressional Prayer Room. (Courtesy photo)