United Methodist Racial Justice Agency Plans February 23 Border Crossing to Show Solidarity with Immigrants (GCORR)
United Methodist Racial Justice Agency Plans February 23 Border Crossing to Show Solidarity with Immigrants 0
FEBRUARY 15, 2017
United Methodist Racial Justice Agency Plans February 23 Border Crossing to Show Solidarity with Immigrants 0
FEBRUARY 15, 2017
STORIES
February 15, 2017
Contact: Selby Ewing, Communications Director
(615) 887-8027
sewing@gcorr.org
WASHINGTON– To demonstrate solidarity with and compassion for migrants around the world, members of the United Methodist agency charged with championing intercultural and interracial justice, reconciliation and cooperation will cross the U.S. border into Mexico on February 23, 2017.
Voting members and staff of the General Commission on Religion and Race say this action is “to be in community with those caring for and affected by U.S. immigration policies.”
Erin M. Hawkins, Commission staff executive, says her office planned the border crossing before U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on immigration. At the same time, Hawkins added, she hopes this action will be a call to United Methodist Christians to welcome the strangers among us.
”In light of the great fear that exists in the wake of President Trump’s actions against migrants and refugees and keeping in mind that this matter is global in scope, we see the opportunity to bear witness to the realities of migration as a blessing. We hope to not only bring a ministry of presence during our border crossing experience, but to be transformed by the stories that we hear along the way.”
The Commission, one of 14 church-wide programs and administrative agencies serving the 7-million-member Church, is holding its semi-annual board meeting on February 22-25, 2017 in San Diego, CA. The cross will take them through the San Ysidro Port of Entry which is the largest and busiest land border in the Western Hemisphere. The border crossing experience is being organized by leaders of the California Pacific Annual Conference and will include prayer at the border wall, conversations with deported U.S. veterans, border personnel and Haitian refugees, and learning about local church ministry with migrant families. Follow along with the experience on Facebook and Twitter using #GCORRcross throughout the day on February 23.
GCORR will be the first General Church representatives to make a witness at the border since the issuing of an executive order attempting to ban entry of persons from seven countries and the recent surge of ICE raids. It is against this backdrop that the agency hopes to lift up the denomination-wide statement on “Welcoming the Migrant to the United States” in the Book of Resolution #3281, adopted by the 2016 General Conference. The statement reads, in part: Regardless of legal status or nationality, we are all connected through Christ to one another. Paul reminds us that when “one part suffers, all the parts suffer” as well (1 Corinthians 12:26). The solidarity we share through Christ eliminates the boundaries and barriers which exclude and isolate. Therefore, the sojourners we are called to love are our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters; indeed, they are us.
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The General Commission on Religion and Race’s mission is to build the capacity of The United Methodist Church to be contextually relevant, reach more people, younger people and more diverse people, and to nurture them as Christ’s disciples to transform the world.
February 15, 2017
Contact: Selby Ewing, Communications Director
(615) 887-8027
sewing@gcorr.org
WASHINGTON– To demonstrate solidarity with and compassion for migrants around the world, members of the United Methodist agency charged with championing intercultural and interracial justice, reconciliation and cooperation will cross the U.S. border into Mexico on February 23, 2017.
Voting members and staff of the General Commission on Religion and Race say this action is “to be in community with those caring for and affected by U.S. immigration policies.”
Erin M. Hawkins, Commission staff executive, says her office planned the border crossing before U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on immigration. At the same time, Hawkins added, she hopes this action will be a call to United Methodist Christians to welcome the strangers among us.
”In light of the great fear that exists in the wake of President Trump’s actions against migrants and refugees and keeping in mind that this matter is global in scope, we see the opportunity to bear witness to the realities of migration as a blessing. We hope to not only bring a ministry of presence during our border crossing experience, but to be transformed by the stories that we hear along the way.”
The Commission, one of 14 church-wide programs and administrative agencies serving the 7-million-member Church, is holding its semi-annual board meeting on February 22-25, 2017 in San Diego, CA. The cross will take them through the San Ysidro Port of Entry which is the largest and busiest land border in the Western Hemisphere. The border crossing experience is being organized by leaders of the California Pacific Annual Conference and will include prayer at the border wall, conversations with deported U.S. veterans, border personnel and Haitian refugees, and learning about local church ministry with migrant families. Follow along with the experience on Facebook and Twitter using #GCORRcross throughout the day on February 23.
GCORR will be the first General Church representatives to make a witness at the border since the issuing of an executive order attempting to ban entry of persons from seven countries and the recent surge of ICE raids. It is against this backdrop that the agency hopes to lift up the denomination-wide statement on “Welcoming the Migrant to the United States” in the Book of Resolution #3281, adopted by the 2016 General Conference. The statement reads, in part: Regardless of legal status or nationality, we are all connected through Christ to one another. Paul reminds us that when “one part suffers, all the parts suffer” as well (1 Corinthians 12:26). The solidarity we share through Christ eliminates the boundaries and barriers which exclude and isolate. Therefore, the sojourners we are called to love are our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters; indeed, they are us.
###
The General Commission on Religion and Race’s mission is to build the capacity of The United Methodist Church to be contextually relevant, reach more people, younger people and more diverse people, and to nurture them as Christ’s disciples to transform the world.
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Sister of Former President Barack Obama to Speak at HolmanThe 4th Annual JCWWP Foundation Benefit “Ceeds of Peace: Something Inside So Strong…”February 25, 2017
USPS Black Heritage Stamp to be Unveiled at St. John'sSt. John's United Methodist Church
Everyone is invited!
7 febbraio alle ore 7:13 ·
DSF BLACK HISTORY CONCERT, STAMP UNVEILING
The Dozier Singers Family & Friends (DSF) will hold their annual Black History concert, "Feeling the Spirit" February 26, 4 p.m. at St. John's United Methodist Church, 1715 Santa Ana Blvd. north, in Los Angeles.
During the concert, officials will unveil the U.S. Postal Service's 40th stamp in its Black Heritage series. The honoree this year is civil rights champion Dorothy Height.
Several groups will take part in the celebration: The Hollypark Choir, The St. John's Praise Team, St. John's Echoes of Praise dancers, Farron Dozier (radio personality and Sickle Cell Trait proponent, original composition emphasizing SCT awareness).
DSF's performance will include recitation of poetry by author and poet Langston Hughes: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and the group's version of "Old Man River" ("Show Boat"). DSF will introduce an exciting, new a cappella version of an old favorite spiritual song.
There is no cost to attend the event, however, there will be a free-will offering.
Dorothy Height dedicated her life to fighting for racial and gender equality. Although rarely gaining the recognition granted her male contemporaries, she became one of the most influential civil rights leaders of the 20th century. She was an architect of the August 1963 March on Washington where she shared the stage with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
Height also fought for the rights of women, particularly women of color. In 2009, she was Barack Obama's guest when he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.
St. John's provides ample, free, secured parking.
In the photo: back row from left, Jerry and Raymond Dozier Jr., front row, Erma, Larry (St. John's pastor), and Tamra Dozier.
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Commentary: An executive order with memory (Nakagawa - UMNS)
Commentary: An executive order with memory by Rev. Mark M. Nakagawa
Photo from United States Library of Congress’ Prints and Photographs division, I.D. fsa.8a31149, by Russell Lee, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Japanese Americans going to internment camp Manzanar in Owens Valley gather around a baggage car at the old Santa Fe Station in Los Angeles, California, April 1942. Manzanar was one of 10 camps in the United States where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed (incarcerated) during World War II between December 1942 to 1945.
Courtesy photo of the Rev. Mark Nakagawa.As U.S. President Donald Trump wields the power of executive order, bringing fear to vulnerable communities in 21st-century America, Japanese Americans across the country remember a similar replay of history from the last century.
This weekend marks the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942. E.O. 9066 gave the Secretary of War and his officers the power to establish military zones for the purpose of protecting the country from potential sabotage, espionage and fifth-column activity by potential domestic enemies.
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in December, 1941, E.O. 9066 specifically targeted Japanese-American communities along the West Coast. Within days after its issue, community leaders were rounded up and sent to detention facilities in Bismarck, North Dakota, and Crystal City, Texas. Among them were Christian and Buddhist clergy, judo instructors, Japanese-language teachers, and fishermen up and down the West Coast who were suspected of using their radios to communicate with the Japanese Navy.
This fear and paranoia culminated in the forced evacuation of 110,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast by May of that year. Within local communities, Japanese Methodist churches served as points of gathering and departure for their congregants, and as storage facilities for the personal items that they were not allowed to take with them.
From these locations, first-generation Japanese immigrants who were classified as “aliens ineligible for citizenship,” along with their second-generation American-born children, were first sent to “assembly centers,” which were temporary quarters at racetracks and fairgrounds. They were subsequently sent to 10 internment camps (FDR actually called them “concentration camps”) scattered in bleak, desolate areas across the United States.
In the midst of this fear, confusion and turmoil, a little-known event of historical proportion was conducted within the Santa Anita Racetrack Assembly Center in Southern California, the same track where Seabiscuit had finished ahead of War Admiral four years earlier.
On July 2, 1942, the third annual session of the Pacific Japanese Provisional Annual Conference was convened by Methodist Bishop James C. Baker. He was assisted by the Rev. Frank Herron Smith, a former missionary to Japan, who had been assigned to organize and oversee the work of Japanese Methodist preachers and their congregations, which were located primarily in cities that lay west of the Rockies and along the Pacific Coast.
Smith was one of two public figures who openly spoke out against the internment. The other advocate on behalf of the Japanese community was Colorado Gov. Ralph Carr, who paid the political price of being voted out of office.
This is the only documented meeting in American church history that has ever been conducted in a prison-camp setting under armed military guards. Meeting in the mess hall where the internees gathered for their daily meals, the work and ministry of the church continued. Thirty-four of the 35 active Japanese clergy were not present; they were designated as serving in a “military zone,” meaning that they had been evacuated to another assembly center located in the Western U.S.
The following year another session of the provisional conference was convened on July 9-11, 1943, in Denver, which was outside the geography of the military zones. Bishop Baker presided once again, this time being assisted by the Rev. Taro Goto, pastor of the Denver-area Japanese Methodist Church during the internment years.
The official report notes the designated assignments of “Relocation Project” being given to 27 of the clergy who had been incarcerated in an internment camp. Nevertheless, reports of baptisms, weddings and funerals continued to be reported by those pastors who ministered to their fellow internees within the camps, bringing comfort, solace and hope to them under distressing circumstances.
Upon the closing of the internment camps by 1945, the provisional conference held its first post-war meeting over the July 3-4 Independence Day observance at the Japanese Methodist Church in Oakland, California. This location was not only convenient for those who had already begun their return to the West Coast but also symbolically fitting; the Oakland church had been designated as a regional processing center for returning evacuees by the War Relocation Authority, a civilian agency that had been created to supervise the relocation.
The continuation of these church conferences during wartime and internment enabled Japanese Methodist congregants to maintain faith and hope in the midst of hopelessness and despair. Upon returning to their communities and church buildings, these faithful Methodists restarted their congregations and began rebuilding their shattered lives and communities, in the process making a way forward for their children and heirs.
General Conference, the top legislative body of The United Methodist Church, denounced the “flagrant violations of humans rights” involving Americans of Japanese ancestry. In 1980 and 1984, the church called on Congress to support legislation that would "determine appropriate remedies" for those incarcerated during World War II.
On this 75th anniversary remembrance of E.O. 9066, Japanese American United Methodists will be standing with those who oppose current executive orders to deport people who are deemed a “national security threat” to this country when no credible evidence supports it.
We will continue to stand in support of communities who risk being threatened with the same course of events as ours once experienced.
The Rev. Mark M. Nakagawa is the West District Superintendent of the California-Pacific Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.
News media contact: Vicki Brown, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.
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