After news broke last week (Oct. 17) that Maryland Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings had died, many were quick to note that one of the last things the longstanding critic of the Trump administration — and key figure in an ongoing impeachment inquiry — did in his hospital bed was sign subpoenas.
But when Bishop Walter Thomas stood before the hundreds of churchgoers and dignitaries who packed the pews of New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland, on Friday (Oct. 25) for Cummings’ funeral, he insisted the legislator’s “last official act of the Kingdom of God” was something else.
“His last act takes place today, when men and women from every aspect of life, from those who run corporations, those who stand in hallowed halls, those who sit with robes behind benches, those who pass legislation … have all made their way to the place he came every Sunday morning,” said Thomas, speaking from the pulpit of a church Cummings attended for nearly 40 years. “His last act … is that he wanted you to know why he came to church.”