Gene Robinson, the Episcopal church’s first gay bishop, will deliver the invocation at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, January 18 - the formal kickoff leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Obama.

Thousands of people are expected to attend the service, including the President-elect.

“It will be an enormous honor to offer prayers for the country and the new president, standing on the holy ground where the ‘I have a dream speech’ was delivered by Dr. King, surrounded by the inspiring and reconciling words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,” Robinson wrote in a weekend e-mail to supporters.

The announcement by the inaugural committee was one of two involving liberal religious leaders tapped by the committee. The Rev. Sharon Watkins, leader of the small Protestant denomination The Disciples of Christ, has been chosen to deliver the sermon at the National Prayer Service.

Watkins is the first woman leader of The Disciples of Christ