Yesterday’s annual parade of the United House of Prayer For All People lasted more than two hours and featured the church’s current bishop as well as numerous brass bands and uniformed marchers. The parade began its trip around Logan Circle around 12:20 pm after leaving the staging area in Shaw at 6th and M NW. Congregations from up and down the east coast participate in the parade.

Logan Circle is important because UHOP still owns the house at 11 Logan Circle NW where the denomination’s founder once lived—Bishop Charles Manuel (Sweet Daddy) Grace.

Cultural Tourism DC has a good write up about Grace and the history of the house and you can also learn more about the history of UHOP at the church website. Grace was born Marcelino Manuel da Gracain 1884 in Brava Cape Verde Islands, a Portuguese possession off the west coast of Africa. He moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1903 and incorporated UHOP in 1927 in DC; he died in 1960.