RGBM on the “Hometown” Podcast!
The Hometown podcast is now in its fourth season, and features the Rio Grande Borderland Ministry! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Google Play, and Spotify.
Hometown Season 4, Episode 2 features our interview with The Rev. Mike Wallens, co-chair of the Rio Grande Borderland Ministries (RGBM) for the Diocese of the Rio Grande, and Nellie Fagan, project coordinator for Rio Grande Borderland Ministries (RGBM) through Blueprint.
Mike Wallens is the Vicar of an Episcopal church in Marfa, Texas and serves four other churches in the Big Bend region of Far West Texas. The Rio Grande Borderland Ministries which Mike serves covers all of New Mexico and Far West Texas. The ministries of Rio Grande Borderland Ministries include working with the Anglican Diocese of Northern Mexico as well as shelters on the U.S. side of the border. Mike helps coordinate responses to the humanitarian crisis along the southern border of the United States, maintaining open communication with the Border Patrol in the Big Bend Sector and supporting Rio Grande Borderland Ministries partnership with Boquillas Beyond Mexico Mission, Inc.
The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego Presents: The Border Ministries Summit 2020November 20-21, 2020
Join us for the Virtual Border Ministries Summit 2020 and hear from those at the center of the immigrant community in San Diego. Our focus will be on Christian Peacemaking in a World of Conflict. Learn from undocumented people, deportees, first generation immigrants and Christian leaders who live in Tijuana and San Diego. We will hear from Episcopal / Anglican Bishops and other leaders on both sides of the border, as well as from the Border Patrol and legal experts. We will not only learn about immigration but will be equipped with tangible Christian Peacemaking practices to live out in our own contexts as Everyday Peacemakers. The pain is real and the opportunity for transformation and healing is as well. This is the Third Annual Border Summit, designed for Episcopal and other Christian leaders wanting more information about the US-Mexico border, and for those who want to learn the basics of becoming Christian Peacemakers in this time of deep division. To learn more about The Border Ministries Summit 2020 and register for the event, please visit borderministries.com.
ADVOCACY UPDATE from EPISCOPAL MIGRATION MINISTRIES
The Episcopal Church and Episcopal Migration Ministries are members of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition. The Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) is a partnership of over 50 national, faith-based organizations committed to enacting fair and humane immigration reform that reflects our mandate to welcome the stranger and treat all human beings with dignity and respect.
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition has launched a new email listserv for members of faith communities. You may subscribe here.
Among recent updates from The Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations, and from the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, is the need to advocate for additional COVID-19 relief for the most vulnerable, including immigrant communities:
Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations Action Alert
Interfaith Immigration Coalition Toolkit
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES from Episcopal Migration Ministries
Walking with Asylum Seekers: A Training Series for Congregations: In the month of October, join Episcopal Migration Ministries, in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and Lutheran Family Services of the Rocky Mountains (LFSRM), for a three-part training series for congregations interested in supporting and walking alongside asylum seekers. The three 90-minute virtual events will provide advocacy updates, resources for group discernment, ministry models, and important considerations when engaging in ministry with asylum seekers.
Walking with Asylum Seekers: Ministry Opportunities for CongregationsWEBINAR: October 8, 4:00 – 5:30PM Eastern
Walking with Asylum Seekers: Sponsorship Part 1MEETING: October 20, 4:00 – 5:30PM Eastern
Walking with Asylum Seekers: Sponsorship Part 2
MEETING: October 27, 4:00 – 5:30PM Eastern
Participants may choose to attend one or more of the virtual events offered. Registration is required. The October 8 webinar will be available on-demand following the event; the latter two meetings will not be available on-demand.
Internships with Episcopal Migration Ministries: Episcopal Migration Ministries’ Church Engagement Team is excited to announce four new internship opportunities for students at seminaries or other pastoral/theological training programs. These internships will offer advocacy and policy skills, opportunities to connect with community leaders, as well as relationship and partnership with grassroots networks of Episcopalians engaged in the work of migration ministries.
The internships will provide an opportunity to connect with developing ministry networks, to learn more about grassroots engagement at the parish, diocesan, and church-wide level, and to delve deeply into the resources available on migration ministries, from worship and liturgy materials to policy analysis and advocacy.
All internships are part-time, non-stipendiary, and fully virtual. Length of internship is negotiable. Information: https://episcopalmigrationministries.org/emm-engagement-seminary-internship-opportunities/
Join an EMM Ministry Network: EMM is hosting two new ministry networks: the Episcopal Ministry Network on Detention and the Episcopal Ministry Network on Asylum. These networks are focused on education, service, and advocacy, with a special attention to developing resources and fostering relationships to benefit local ministries. New members are welcome.
Episcopal Ministry Network on Detention meets on the first Monday of the month, 10:00am-11:15am Mountain Time. Register.
Episcopal Ministry Network on Asylum meets on the third Monday of the month, 10:00am-11:15am Mountain Time. Register.
#EMMReads Book Kits
EMM is now offering free book discussion guides on a number of titles written by immigrant authors or about immigrant/refugee topics. Simply request the Book Kits and they will be emailed to you for download. Titles include We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, and The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You. Discussion guides for new titles will be added this fall, including Jessica Goudeau’s recently released After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America.
Ministry Resource: In fall 2019, Episcopal Migration Ministries released the first edition of Supporting Asylum Seekers: A Toolkit for Congregations. This resource is free; request it here and it will be emailed to you for download.
A Blessing from Immigration Ministries - Episcopal Diocese of West Texas:
God beyond borders, we bless you for strange places and different dreams, for the demands and diversity of a wider world, for the distance that lets us look back and re-evaluate, for new ground where broken stems can take root, grow and blossom. We bless you for the friendship of strangers, the richness of other cultures and the painful gift of freedom
Blessed are you, God beyond borders.
But if we have overlooked the exiles in our midst, heightened their exclusion by our indifference, given our permission for the climate of fear, and tolerated a culture of violence/
Soften our hearts and have mercy on us, God who sides with justice.
Go in peace and grace. And may God lift up new possibilities before us, let the face of Christ be seen in our neighbors and send the Holy Spirit to lead us into the celebration of a new community.
AMEN.
To join the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas’ Weekly Migrant Cycle of Prayer, please click here to register.