Rector’s Forum with Author Donn Mitchell

On Sunday, November 16 following the 11AM service, the Parish of Calvary-St. George’s is thrilled to present its first edition of Rector’s Forum in the Fall 2025 season with special guest, Donn Mitchell, presenting his new book Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer: The Religious Life of the First Lady of the World.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer, the first book to explore how the beloved First Lady’s commitment to social justice, compassion, and service, was rooted not only in her politics and public life, but in a spiritual tradition that shaped her conscience and emboldened her work.

Eleanor Roosevelt became one of the most revered women of the 20th century. Her faith is often dismissed as a relic of her privileged upbringing or a framework she outgrew, but Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer uncovers how it was her faith and her devotion to Jesus’s teachings that galvanized her work.

Through extensive research, Donn Mitchell reveals that Roosevelt’s faith remained with her throughout her life—in public commitments and private rituals. Her nightly prayer, famously recorded in her writing, was a discipline stemming from her Episcopal upbringing, and served as a wellspring for her courage, compassion, and moral clarity. Her tireless work for racial equality, refugee protection, women’s rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights all bear the imprint of a woman whose belief in justice was inseparable from her belief in God. 

Donn Mitchell is a professor at Fordham University where he teaches courses in history. He is the author of Tread the City’s Streets Again: Frances Perkins Shares Her Theology. His work has appeared in The Christian Century, The Living Church, and more. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.