The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who delivered a Christmas Eve sermon at Washington National Cathedral that President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE attended, said she called on the parishioners to assist refugees in need.

“As Christians, as followers of Jesus, as one of our great mantras of the church says, in the name of these refugees, we are to help all refugees,” Bishop Marianne Budde told NPR Tuesday, adding that there are parallels between the story of many refugees and Mary and Joseph in the nativity story.

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The White House has sought to drastically curtail the number of refugees admitted to the U.S., proposed several measures to limit migrants’ paths toward requesting asylum and has demanded $5 billion in funding for a border wall before a current partial government shutdown is ended.

Thousands of Central American migrants are currently waiting in Mexico seeking to enter the U.S. for asylum.

“I didn't explicitly mention any of the immigrant crises that are facing us, although I was just at the U.S.-Mexican border a few days ago and can't get those images out of my mind. But I didn't have to. It was the text that called that to us, and I simply touched upon it pretty lightly, actually, at the end of the sermon. But it's an unmistakable part of the story,” Budde told NPR.

Budde said she found out that Trump, who had originally planned on being in Florida at the time, would be in attendance at the service about 15 minutes before the sermon began and did not design her speech specifically for the president.

“I hope he heard what I wanted everyone to hear. I don't think I changed his mind on the issues about which he and I would disagree because most of us come into a sermon or any other encounter with our biases fully in place. But one never knows,” she said. “It wasn't just for the president. It's for all of us. I mean, we have a responsibility. And we have infinite ways that we can respond. And so that's what I hope he and everyone heard.”