As you may well know, the first family attended an Easter service at an AME church in a poor and violent DC neighborhood on Sunday. WaPo has a nice story about the service. For you church nerds/politicos, the pool report is below.

But don’t expect President Obama and the first family to grace the pews at Allen Chapel AME Church every Sunday. Obama told Matt Lauer last week that:

“We’ve decided for now not to join a single church. The reason is because Michelle and I have realized we are very disruptive to services,” Obama replied. “We occasionally go across the street to St. John’s, which is a church that a lot of presidents traditionally have gone to. We love the chapel up in Camp David. It’s probably our favorite place to worship because it’s just family up at Camp David.”

This seems to indubitably confirm Time’s Amy Sullivan’s reporting from last July. The questions now seem to be: How often will Obama attend church in DC? Will he essentially become a Chreaster?

It doesn’t seem that way: The administration told me last month that Obama has attended services at Camp David about a half-dozen times. He’s also been to St. Johns, an Episcopal Church, as the president told Lauer, and to Vermont Ave. Baptist Church, in January.

So, what if the Obamas don’t join a church? Does it matter politically or theologically? Should anybody care?

Here’s the (unedited) pool report, provided by Chuck Lewis of Hearst Newspapers: President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Sasha and Mrs. Marian Robinson, mother of Mrs. Obama, attended 11 a.m. Easter services at the Allen Chapel, African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Southeast Washington’s Ward 8.

The motorcade left the North Portico at 10:45 a.m. (The South Lawn was set up for the Monday Easter Egg Roll), rolled down 15th Street , past the Tidal Basis where throngs were examining the faded cherry blossoms, to the church at 2498 Alabama Av. SE. The Church’s subtitle is “The Cathedral of Southeast.”

The overflow crowd of congregants was standing, clapping and singing “Halleilua” when the first family entered via a side door at 11:05 a.m. and walked along the edge of the sanctuary to sit far stage right in the second pew, setting off applause, cheers and cell-phone cameras. The altar was flanked by the American flag, in front of the Obamas’ pew, and the Episcopal Church’s flag on stage left.

The pool was positioned at the back of the church, 20 pews behind the Obama family. Ten badged ushers in dark suits and bowties and white gloves lined the two aisles.

A 50-person choir arrayed on three rows in the sanctuary facing the congregation sang several gospel songs, clapping and waving to the beat of a key-board ensemble. The president swayed gently to the strong beat and the amped-up sound system.

A number of speakers referred to the president’s attendance. “The president of the United States and his family,” “our black president,” “the commander in chief.”

The Rev. Dr . Michael E. Bell Sr., pastor of the church, referred to the president as the “most intelligent, most anointed, most charismatic president of America.” He called Mrs. Obama “his beautiful wife – TV cameras don’t do her justice.”

“God has His hand all over you,” Pastor Bell said, referring to the president. “Anyone would be foolish to come up against him.”

Pastor Bell called Mrs. Robinson “a true AMEer” who was “born an AMEer.”

Pastor Bell said it “was no accident that he (Obama) is here in light of what happened here last Tuesday,” referring to the drive-by shooting deaths of four people in the African American community in one of the worst outbreaks of violence in recent Washington history. The president’s presence was “helping our community heal,” Pastor Bell said.

Pastor Bell announced that the Obama family would leave after they receive communion. The first family knelt at the communion rail, far stage right, as the Rt. Rev. Adam Jefferson Richardson, Jr., presiding bishop, recited the Lord’s Prayer and then distributed communion, starting far stage left and working his way to the first family. Communion consisted of wafers and individual thimble-size glasses of grape juice.

Mortorcade departed church at 12:50 p.m., back to the White House at 1:04 p.m.

The photo at top left, by White House photog Pete Souza, is the first family at Allen Chapel AME Church on Sunday.