On the rare occasions when Washington actually attended church (perhaps twelve times a year pre-presidency and only three times in his last three years), Washington refused to take communion, even though his wife did.22 Bishop William White officiated in some of the churches Washington occasionally attended. When asked specifically if Washington was a “communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church,” White wrote, “truth requires me to say, that Gen. Washington never received the communion, in the churches of which I am the parochial minister. Mrs. Washington was an habitual communicant.”23 The
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