As reports come in about ICE raids around the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, I write to remind my siblings in Christ that, by act of diocesan convention in December 2016, we are a sanctuary diocese.“Sanctuary” is generally but not exclusively understood as sheltering immigrant workers and their families in churches. I’m not aware of any of our 133 missions and parishes which currently do so. This doesn’t rule it out if circumstances warrant. We look forward to joining with colleagues in the ecumenical and interfaith community in mounting legal challenges if the current administration follows through on its stated intention to violate the sanctity of churches and other places of worship when they shelter those fleeing unjust power.
We also construe sanctuary as a personal spiritual discipline – finding a place in our hearts for a better understanding of immigrants’ narratives and predicament. As the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde said in her sermon a week ago at Washington National Cathedral, the vast majority of undocumented people in our country are doing their jobs, caring for their families, and paying their taxes.
A hypothetical administration, conceived according to values of basic decency, could promise to treat these workers and their families humanely while securing the border and holding accountable any violent criminals who have slipped through. The current administration makes no such distinctions, causing millions of our neighbors to live in fear.
Our Episcopal Sacred Resistance – Los Angeles ministers are working to educate members of our churches about the issue, help immigrant workers and their families understand their legal rights, and set up systems of local and regional communication so we’ll know what the current administration chooses to do in our neighborhoods. We’ve also formed coalitions with other faith leaders and community organizers.
Since the current administration has explicitly stated its hostility to trans and non-binary people, when these folks are also immigrants, they bear the burden of being twice scapegoated. Wherever and however we can, we resolve to be pastorally present to them and all who are being victimized by our politicians.
More information about immigrant workers’ rights can be found at the National Immigration Law Center.
May our God in Christ protect the people of the United States and by the power of the Holy Spirit inspire its leaders in their obligation to devote themselves to true patriotism, which is liberty and justice for all.