MARYLAND: Bishops issue call to welcome the 'other' in pastoral letter on immigration
Episcopal News Service. September 3, 2010 [090310-03]
ENS staff
The bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland have issued a pastoral letter addressing the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
The Sept. 2 letter, titled Welcoming the Stranger, is intended to be posted or read in Episcopal congregations in Maryland "to remind all of us of the biblical values and imperatives that should guide our treatment of newcomers and sojourners," the bishops say.
In a summary of the formal document, the bishops said, "In a world on the move, we need to learn to welcome the stranger, to embrace the 'other.' The moral principles of the Episcopal faith lead us to value every individual, to value family ties and seek to preserve families, and to cry out for justice for all people."
Maryland Bishop Eugene Sutton, in a Sept. 2 statement supporting the pastoral letter, said: "My brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, Jesus is in our midst today. Jesus is working in our fields, cleaning our houses, emptying our bedpans and mowing our lawns. He's also excelling in schools, attending colleges and universities, doing groundbreaking research in laboratories, transplanting our hearts and kidneys, and paying our taxes. And by the way, he's sitting in our pews, and partaking of the Holy Eucharist with the whole community of faith. What should we do with this immigrant Jesus ... this stranger? Welcome him ... welcome him ... welcome him."
The bishops' letter includes an appendix of General Convention resolutions from 1988 that address immigrants' rights. Most recently in July 2009, the Episcopal Church's General Convention passed Resolution B006, which called for an end to local enforcement of immigration law and a return of such enforcement to federal agencies. In 2006, the convention passed Resolution A017, committing the church to welcome strangers "as a matter of Christian responsibility, to advocate for their well-being and protection and to urge its members to resist legislation and actions which violate our fundamental beliefs as Christians."
As a contentious immigration law was due to take effect in Arizona July 29, a federal judge partially blocked sections that would have required immigrants to carry citizenship papers at all times and police officers to check immigration status during traffic stops, detentions and arrests. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton also halted a section barring undocumented workers from applying for or soliciting employment. Episcopalians in the Diocese of Arizona, including Bishop Kirk Smith, have been at the forefront of protesting the law.
Similar laws have been proposed in other states amid protests and calls for immigration reform.
There are 38 million immigrants in the United States, accounting for 12.5 percent of the total population, according to the Migration Information Source.
"We are a nation of immigrants and Baltimore is a city of immigrants," Maryland Bishop Suffragan John L. Rabb said in a statement. "And these are sources of pride. Our state was patterned to welcome and embrace [those] who did not know the religious freedom that today is such a part of our lives."
The Rev. Hector R. Rodriguez, Latino missioner for the diocese, also issued a statement Sept. 2.
"This is not a time to regress," said Rodriguez. "As the bishops state so well, we ought not separate families. We should allow children who have resided here and gone to school here the possibility of going to college at a par with their classmates, regardless of the land of their birth. The rights of both native workers and immigrant workers should be defended, and wages should be sufficient to not pit one group against the other. This is the Labor Day message our nation needs to hear."
The full text of the pastoral letter is available here.
The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is a Christian community of 22,000 households in 116 congregations covering 10 counties and Baltimore City.