Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer – Book Event
When: Sunday, February 22, 2026 at 3 PM
Location: St James’ Episcopal Church, 4526 Albany Post Rd, Hyde Park, NY 12538
Registration is not required, walk-ins are welcome.
The St. James’ Episcopal Church and the Eleanor Roosevelt Center welcome you to join us for a reading and conversation with Donn Mitchell, author of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer. Eleanor Roosevelt’s faith—shaped in part at St. James’—nurtured a life of courage and justice. The event will include a reading, presentation, and Q&A, followed by a reception and book-signing in the Parish Hall. Copies of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer will be available to purchase.
About the Book
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer uncovers how Eleanor Roosevelt’s faith—shaped in part at St. James’ Episcopal Church—served as a wellspring for her courage, compassion, and moral clarity. Her tireless work for racial equality, refugee protection, women’s and workers’ 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.
“No account of the extraordinary life and achievements of Eleanor Roosevelt is complete without attention to the ways her deep Christian faith affected every aspect of her public and private life. Yet most of her biographers have followed the trend of political historians to minimize the role of religion in the lives of their subjects. Now, thanks to this richly sourced spiritual biography by Donn Mitchell, no one will be able to make that mistake again.”
— Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; author of A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.
About the Author and Speakers
Donn Mitchell
Donn Mitchell currently teaches at Fordham University. His work has appeared in the Christian Century, the Living Church, and the Anglican Theological Review. He is the author of Tread the City’s Streets Again: Frances Perkins Shares Her Theology. He has previously taught at Manhattan College, the General Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary.
Lynn Ruggiero
Lynn, is a community-active resident of Hyde Park and the Vice Chair of ERVK, as well as the President of the local Hyde Park Library which was built by Sara Roosevelt in honor of her husband, James, with origins as a reading room at St James Church. Through her work as an Associate Psychologist with the New York State Office of People with Developmental Disabilities, and her doctoral research and work at Graduate Center of the City University of New York focusing on international conflict resolution, Lynn has demonstrated her belief that serving marginalized people is a humanizing and affirming profession. Her passion for international travel, meeting and sharing with people from various countries and cultures of the world, supports Eleanor Roosevelt’s belief that people-to-people exchanges affect the world in small but significant ways.
“Mitchell fills a long-overdue gap in the scholarship on Eleanor Roosevelt by illuminating her life as a woman of unshakeable faith. How did the Episcopal Church shape Eleanor’s childhood and young adult years? Even as a great granddaughter, I have rarely paused to consider how her spiritual beliefs were the backbone of her social conscience. Read this book to discover its deep insights into how Eleanor met the world with such courage, strength and forgiveness.”
— Anna Eleanor Fierst, Eleanor Roosevelt Center Board Chair and Eleanor Roosevelt’s Great-Granddaughter
Location
St. James’ Episcopal Church
4526 Albany Post Rd,
Hyde Park, NY 12538
https://stjameshydepark.org/
