The Obamas on the lookout for new church

Washington, Jan 20 (ANI): US president-elect Barack Obama and his family are on the lookout for a new church after they left Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in May.

The incoming First Family had left the church after a controversy sparked by pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., but now for them finding a new church is not an easy task, considering the security demands.

Obama had also revealed at the time that his presence at the church had created a hardship for other members of the congregation, so now as they continue their search they will have to consider those problems.

This Sunday the Obamas attended service at the historic and predominantly black Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., one of the churches they are considering joining.

This is the first Sunday service that Obama have attended in five months, and the president-elect plans to attend service on Inauguration Day at St. John's Episcopal Church near the White House.

The Rev. Derrick Harkins, senior pastor at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, said that he understood church membership was a weighty decision for the Obamas, or any family, to undertake.

"That is a very personal and yet also prayerful decision for any family, and certainly for this family, so we'll entrust that to them as they continue to move forth and we'll let God do the rest," Fox News quoted Harkins as saying.

Church members say that they are ready to welcome the Obamas on a more permanent basis if they settle on the Nineteenth Street church, even with all the security demands.

Obama is attempting to demonstrate his embrace of spiritual diversity at his inauguration ceremony January 20, when white, conservative evangelical Rev. Rick Warren will deliver the invocation and black, liberal Rev. Joseph Lowery will deliver the benediction. (ANI)