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We are writing to express our outrage regarding Israel’s ongoing attacks on the Palestinian people and to call on the government of Canada to use all diplomatic tools to push for an immediate flow of life-saving food, water, aid, fuel and humanitarian assistance.

The post Churches call for open flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza appeared first on The Anglican Church of Canada.

[Episcopal News Service] When a small group of white South Africans, whom the Trump administration has deemed refugees, arrive in the United States this week, they will be assisted by some nonprofit agencies that historically have contracted with the U.S. government to do that resettlement work. Episcopal Migration Ministries will not be one of them. The Episcopal Church, according to a letter issued May 12 by Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, has declined the Trump administration’s request to participate in the fast-tracked immigration of Afrikaners, part of the white minority in South Africa that formerly governed the country until the end of the extreme racial segregation of apartheid in 1994. EMM has not assisted any new arrivals since early this year, when the Trump administration halted the broader federal resettlement program indefinitely. Millions of people worldwide are identified by the United Nations as refugees escaping war, famine or religious persecution in their home countries. EMM has resettled nearly 110,000 such refugees over nearly 40 years, but “in light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step” of assisting the Trump administration in resettling Afrikaners, Rowe said after consulting with Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town. Instead, The Episcopal Church will formally end all federal resettlement work when its contract expires at the end of this fiscal year, on Sept. 30. EMM, after further reducing its staff, will continuing operating as a church-based ministry to serve the needs of refugees already in the U.S., as well as asylum-seekers and other migrants. EMM had been one of 10 nongovernmental agencies, many of them associated with religious denominations, that facilitated refugee resettlement through the federal program created in 1980. Refugees traditionally have been among the most thoroughly vetted of all immigrants and often waited for years overseas for their opportunity to start new lives in the United States. The Afrikaners, about 50 of whom were scheduled to begin arriving in the United States as early as May 12, were screened and cleared for travel in the three months since Trump signed a Feb. 7 executive order accusing South Africa’s Black-led government of racial discrimination against the white minority group. Afrikaners number about 3 million in a country of 63 million people. “It has been painful to watch one group of refugees [the Afrikaners], selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,” Rowe said in his letter. When Trump took office, some refugees who had waited their turn to be resettled and received clearance to travel to the United States had their travel plans revoked after the president signed his executive order halting the resettlement program. Trump said the United States “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities” despite successful efforts by EMM and the other resettlement agencies to ramp up their resettlement operations during the Biden administration. Until the program was suspended, the United States had opened its doors to up to 125,000 refugees a year, with the largest numbers originating from the Congo, Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela and Burma. Many had fled war-torn regions like Sudan, while others came from countries where citizens now face persecution for their past support of the United States military. “I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country,” Rowe said. “I also grieve that victims of religious persecution, including Christians, have not been granted refuge in recent months.” The federal refugee resettlement program has long had bipartisan support. EMM and the other contracted agencies have provided a range of federally funded services for the first months after the refugees’ arrivals, including English language and cultural orientation classes, employment services and school enrollment, and they helped covered costs such as food and rent as the refugees began to establish new lives and contribute to their adopted communities. Trump’s executive order suspending the program was one of the first actions he took after returning to office on Jan. 20. In the order, he claimed without evidence that refugees had become a costly burden on American communities. On Jan. 31, EMM responded by announcing plans to wind down its core resettlement operations and lay off 22 employees while shifting its focus to other efforts. “While we do not know exactly how this ministry will evolve in our church’s future, we remain steadfast in our commitment to stand with migrants and with our congregations who serve them,” the Rev. Sarah Shipman, EMM’s director, said at the time. Trump’s order gave no indication when, if ever, the congressionally enacted program would resume, other than “such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.” Less than three weeks later, the president’s executive order on South Africa pledged “humanitarian relief” to Afrikaners but it did not specify how the interests of the United States would be served by granting refugee status to white South Africans and expediting their resettlement in the United States. The executive order accuses the South African government of “rights violations” toward Afrikaners, specifically a law allowing the seizure of property without compensation in certain circumstances. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected such claims. “We should challenge the completely false narrative that our country is a place in which people of a certain race or culture are being targeted for persecution,” Ramaphosa said in a March message. Global resettlement needs have only increased in recent years. The refugees who are resettled in the United States typically are fleeing war, persecution and other hardships in their home countries. The United Nations High […]

The United Methodist Youth Fellowship in the Philippines (UMYFP) recently conducted a “Pananaw” (Filipino term for ‘perspectives’) workshop is a three-day program centered on media literacy with focus on social media.

United Methodist organizers plan to make good on the original location of the COVID-delayed 2020 lawmaking assembly. They also hope to make up the budget deficit from earlier sessions.

[Office of the Archbishop of York] On May 9, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell offered his thoughts in the Yorkshire Post on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe over the Nazis, which took place on May 8. In it he called for the active defense of international law and the rules-based order that followed the end of World War II. His remarks are printed below. Maybe it was for a school project, or maybe it was just over Sunday lunch, or on a family holiday. But I imagine most of us who did not live through the privations and suffering of WWII asked our older family members the same question: “What was it really like during the war?” My parents had been evacuated as children, my uncle had fought in Burma, and my grandmas had lived through two world wars. I knew that, to all of them, VE Day meant something. It wasn’t just the remembrance of an historical event, something confined to the past. To them, it was an ongoing celebration of a new, and present, reality. For they knew that Victory in Europe, 80 years ago, had given birth to a new world. We had fought, in the words of my wartime predecessor Archbishop Temple, against “an evil the magnitude and horror of which it is impossible to describe in words.” We fought to uphold the values that Nazism had sought to destroy – the idea that we are one humanity, that we belong to each other, and have responsibilities to each other, whatever our class, race, religion or nation – values which are deeply rooted in our Judeo-Christian tradition. But this struggle did not end with the defeat of Nazism. The fight for our neighbor continued, no longer on the battlefields of Europe, but on the political front. In the hope of creating a society that was better than before, a new world was born out of the rubble of war. At home, we established the modern Welfare State: the NHS, social housing, social security, child benefit and free legal aid, among many other things. As William Beveridge wrote in his famous Report, “a revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.” Globally, the rules-based international order took shape, so that law, not raw power, would govern relations between states. The United Nations was set up as a cornerstone, its goal to promote peace, defend human rights, deliver humanitarian aid, promote sustainable development and uphold international law. Without Victory in Europe, this new world would never have been born. Of course, it is not perfect – structures created by humans never are – but it is nevertheless a world founded firmly on the ideals we fought for. And I shudder to think what world we would be living in if victory in Europe had not been ours, but Hitler’s. In our opposition to what was worst in us, we discovered what is best. That is what VE Day was about for my family – and it is what it means to me. Not a mere memorial, but a living legacy. In routing darkness, it gave birth to a new day, full of joy, peace and hope, which still shines on us today. But, 80 years on, this legacy is increasingly under threat. Our government must actively defend international law and the rules-based order – whenever it is broken, whoever breaks it, whether friend or foe. If we don’t, the laws will lose all power to curb humanity’s worst excesses, and we will once again be shrouded in the darkness where only one law matters: Might is Right. VE Day is not simply a day of remembrance. It is a call to action.

[World Council of Churches] Churches in Haiti are communicating with hearts overwhelmed by the growing suffering of their people, according to the Rev. Eliner Cadet, president of the National Coalition of Haitian Pastors. Cadet appealed for Christian solidarity and support, for united prayer for the Haitian people, and for the return of peace, justice and human dignity. Cadet also urged “diplomatic support to encourage serious and coordinated international initiatives to put an end to the violence perpetrated by criminal gangs in Haiti,” as well as “intervention with international organizations: to call on the Dominican authorities, particularly the current president, to respect the fundamental rights of Haitians, even within the framework of a repatriation process.” Read the entire article here.

Adele Halliday, Anti-Racism and Equity Lead, is keynote speaker at the conference. General Secretary Rev. Michael Blair moderates one stream session.

As Moravians with a deep heritage in ecumenical kinships, we join the National Council of Churches (NCC), of which we are a member body, in affirming the recent election of Pope Leo XIV.  As stated by the NCC: “The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) joins Christians globally–Protestant, Orthodox, and […]

Intercultural Ministries Frontliners: A volunteer opportunity for Church of the Brethren members as liaisons in their districts, working alongside the Intercultural Ministries office to help carry out the vision of togetherness as described in the compelling vision

Angela Burini shares her experience of living for God at work – through leading and leaving