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Religion and Freemasonry
Main articles: Religious views of George Washington and American Enlightenment
Washington as Master of his Lodge, a 1793 portrait of Washington
Washington was descended from Anglican minister Lawrence Washington, who was his great-great-grandfather and whose troubles with the Church of England may have prompted his heirs to emigrate to America.[424] Washington was baptized as an infant in April 1732 and became a devoted member of the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church.[425] He served more than 20 years as a vestryman and churchwarden at Fairfax Parish and Truco Parish in Virginia.[426] He privately prayed and read the Bible daily, and he publicly encouraged people and the nation to pray.[427] He may have taken communion on a regular basis prior to the Revolutionary War, but he did not do so following the war and was admonished by Pastor James Abercrombie for failing to do so.[428]
Washington believed in a "wise, inscrutable, and irresistible" Creator God who was active in the Universe, contrary to deistic thought.[424] He referred to God in Enlightenment terms, including Providence, the Creator, or the Almighty, and the Divine Author or Supreme Being.