President Obama and Family Celebrate Easter in Alexandria

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PHOTOS: Official White House Easter photo by Pete Souza of President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia and Sasha and family pets Bo and Sunny in the Rose Garden at the White House; VisitAlexandriaVA/@AlexandriaVA photo via Twitter; Pool photo by @JaredRizzi; line of worshipers photo by Sharon Crews/@sharecrews via Twitter

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President Obama and his family celebrated Easter in Alexandria, Va. Sunday morning. It was first reported by CBS White House reporter Mark Knoller on Twitter: “First Family joins congregation at Alfred Street Baptist Church for Easter service.”

“This is not selfie time. Let the brother worship,” Knoller reported the Rev. Howard-John Wesley, senior pastor at the church, as saying about President Obama’s presence at the Easter service.

“How fitting that on the day we celebrate the rising of our Lord and savior, we also welcome our sitting president,” USA Today reported Wesley as saying, in welcoming the president, first lady Michelle Obama, and their two daughters to the predominantly African-American church.

Police announced earlier that streets surrounding the historic church, founded in 1803, would be blocked off Sunday morning until about noon.

The church is led by Wesley, installed Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008, as the eighth pastor of the historic church.

Wesley led a protest in December through the streets of Alexandria to call attention to a decision by a New York grand jury not to indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner, a black man.

The decision prompted demonstrators to march to the Alexandria Courthouse holding #BlackLivesMatter and other signs.

The Obamas have often visited Alexandria during their years in the White House, with visits to Del Ray’s Dairy Godmother, Del Ray Pizzeria, FireFlies and in Old Town at Restaurant Eve, The Majestic, Union Street Public House and Vermilion.

Michelle Obama made a low-key visit to the Target at Potomac Yard in Alexandria that later became controversial when she noted that it was “racist” when a customer asked her to nab something from a shelf.