Dear New England Congregational Leader,
This letter is going out to our ministers, board members, and administrators. We send this with the acknowledgement that ICE activity is, and will continue to be, increasing in other areas of the country - including here in the Region in Maine. If your congregation needs support, please respond here or contact your primary contact. This is a dynamic situation, and we are here for you as it unfolds.
Ministers and religious professionals in our tradition are responding loud and clear, as they once did when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called upon clergy colleagues to join him and leaders in Selma, AL. As this is another moment of action, when Love is beckoning us to consider how we might respond, your discernment as partners in shared ministry is important.
Over the last two weeks, the nation and the world have watched in horror as violations of rights and care have been enacted by ICE agents in the Twin Cities. Communities are facing fear, disruption, and state violence at an alarming scale. More than 2,000 ICE officers are currently deployed in the region, and the harm unfolding there is not accidental or isolated. It is the result of policies that criminalize immigration and enforce borders through fear, surveillance, and force rather than care. As a response, local leaders have called for clergy and religious leaders from across the country to join them for MARCH Minnesota, a two-day convening for training and action.
Below is a series of points that you and your religious professionals should consider as you weigh your response to the call. Your religious professionals may be on their way and you are asking, “now what?”. As always, your regional staff is here to support your congregation.
We offer all our congregations a call this Thursday, January 22, night at 7:00pm ET as pastoral care and solidarity with MARCH. Please share this Zoom link with your congregation.
For Congregational Leaders to consider if your religious professional is traveling:
- Support for your congregation: This could be emotionally activating for some of your people. ICE agents have caused a great deal of bodily harm, and multiple people have died at the hands of agents themselves or while in their custody. As a result, some of your people may be very worried.
- Ministerial & Pastoral Care Coverage: Can your lay pastoral associates be available for pastoral care if people need someone to speak with.
- Sunday Worship Coverage: Your minister or religious educator may not be back for Sunday or may need time to recover. Here is an offering from Worship Web you could use as a service.
- Funds to bail Ministers out of detention and other applicable charges: It’s possible your religious professional may be able to use assistance. Consider raising funds.
- Messaging to your congregation: Look at the Side with Love’s Minnesota’s Resource Kit for reliable news sources.
- Remember it’s okay if not everyone in your congregation supports this act. Religious professionals may be personally called to act at times they are not representing your congregation. As leaders you may be asked to listen to anyone who disagrees. Remember they likely have some deep feelings that need witnessing.
How to support MN and your local community:
Lending our support at a time of crisis can not only help others but can also help ourselves feel more grounded. You can offer one or more of these to your congregation --
- Find a way for your congregation’s members to bless your religious professionals if traveling. Hold them in prayer as they’re traveling.
- Look for local events and local organizing partners for opportunities to connect and engage in solidarity for when ICE arrives locally.
- Donate to MARCH.
- Your congregation can send handwritten notes of care and concern to our UU sibling congregations. See this spreadsheet for addresses and to note if your congregation is sending to a particular congregation. More congregations will be added as ICE activity shifts.
- Use Side With Love’s Minnesota’s Resource Kit to find actions you and your congregation can take.
- If there may be a chance of arrests and detainment in your area, your folks can study this Arrestee and Defendant Support Toolkit to be ready.
For clergy and other religious professionals to consider:
- Choosing to travel to Minneapolis at this time is choosing physical, psychological and spiritual risk. While we are called to act in solidarity with those who are the most vulnerable to state violence, what is your current capacity? If you do not have the personal resources to be fully present to the unpredictable and dangerous reality in Minneapolis right now, how can you act in other ways to empower your colleagues and the citizens of Minneapolis? There is no shame in preventing unnecessary harm to yourself.
- If you plan to attend, what does the support network for you and your loved ones look like? Your friends and family will likely worry about your well-being and this concern will increase if you are injured and detained. Have you intentionally set up a circle of care for this time? Have you developed plans in case of injury or legal issues?
- What financial resources are available to you to cover transportation, housing, food and - possibly - legal charges? If these resources are from the congregation, do you currently have easy access to these funds? Are the financial leaders charged with providing them aware of the need?
The struggles we face are not merely political debates; we are in a time of moral and spiritual crisis. They are ethical and material battles over who belongs, who is protected, and whose lives matter. Dr. King said, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.” As a people of faith who proclaim the good news of Love’s redeeming power, we must discern and act.
May Love hold you, guide you, and embolden you as we co-create the Beloved Community today and in all the days ahead. For we, together, bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice.
in faith,
