Our baptismal call is to stand up for human rights and dignity for all.
As news reports continue to uncover the inhumane conditions migrant children are facing in U.S. detention facilities, the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields shares in the national outrage and dismay at federal immigration policy. Many parishioners have asked what we can do to respond to an issue that has local, state, and federal implications.
Here are some ways to keep the call for justice for migrants and refugees before us in the coming weeks, and to commit to the ongoing work of securing their dignity and protection.
Learn and Advocate.
The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations provides several information guides and action alerts on migrant issues on its Migration, Immigrants, and Refugees page, including its most recent, “Ten Things you can do to Accompany Undocumented Immigrants.” You can also send advocacy emails directly from the site.
Information and resources can also be found on the site of Episcopal Migration Ministries.
Raise Your Voice.
Share your concerns about the mistreatment of migrants in federal detention with your elected local, state, and federal officials. Because ICE raids and detention facilities are implemented on every level, from local to federal, we can ask our officials on every level where they stand and what they plan to do.
Commoncause.org provides a search engine to help locate all your officials from local to federal.
Gather and Strengthen.
We cannot do this work alone. Plan to attend the local Lights for Liberty Vigil to End Human Detention Camps at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 12 at Lovett Park in Mt. Airy, 6945 Germantown Ave. The nation-wide vigil will bring thousands of Americans to detention camps across the country, into the streets, and into their own front yards, to protest the inhumane conditions faced by refugees. More information can be found on the local event’s Facebook Page.
You can also share the resources you have discovered - from places to donate or to organize your own response with fellow parishioners - on our Facebook page.
Pray.
Both in your private prayer and in communal worship, bring the needs of our undocumented sisters and brothers before God, and pray too for the ongoing ability to take action for their dignity and safety.
Listen to Rev. Anne Thatcher’s moving June 23 sermon on how the Gospel calls us to respond.
