In moments of tragedy and hardship, the support of a friend is especially critical. The clergy and congregation at St. James Episcopal Church in Wilmington, North Carolina provided aid, comfort and spiritual support to a family of young refugees experiencing great loss from the unexpected death of their mother in August.
The family was new to Wilmington, resettling with help from Interfaith Refugee Ministry, Episcopal Migration Ministries' local partner. As members of the minority Karen ethnic group, the family experience persecution in their native Burma. The family was unaware of the mother's terminal illness when they landed in the U.S.
When she died, Interfaith Wilmington Sub-office Director -- the agency is headquartered and also resettles refugees in New Bern, North Carolina -- Jamie Mills said everyone involved in welcoming the family was devastated.
For guidance and assistance in helping the family, Mills contacted the clergy at St. James, which provides free office space and numerous other sources of support to Interfaith's program.
"St. James was really great," Mills said. "It was a unique example of a church really helping out."
St. James Assistant Rector the Rev. Fletcher Wells prayed with the family at the hospital. Assistant Rector the Rev. Stephen Mazingo presided at a memorial service attended by many from the community, including a number of St. James parishioners, and Rector the Rev. Ron Abrams arranged for pro bono funeral and cremation services.
In a moment of crisis, Abrams said it was a small way of supporting the grieving family.
"You don't think about having to deal with death when you're engaging in refugee ministry. You don't think about having to plan funerals," Abrams said. "Jamie called me because there was a relationship. That's why having Interfaith housed in a congregation is much better than just renting space. There's a spiritual support system in place."
Mazingo called the woman's memorial a "powerful and humbling" experience. He was deeply moved by the woman's sad story, and honored that her family and members of the local Karen community entrusted him with the responsibility of presiding at the service.
"With the circumstances of someone who has been persecuted finally able to reach this promise of freedom that she had been dreaming of for so long, and then to die so soon after, it was difficult for all of us to accept," he said.
Those gathered included a number of former Karen Burmese refugees from New Bern, including Christians, Buddhists and alike, who mourned alongside St. James parishioners and Interfaith supporters of many different backgrounds.
"I think that we, as human beings, have a common bond in our humanity. In gathering together, especially in circumstances that are difficult, we find strength in community, whether that community is all alike or extremely diverse as this one was," Mazingo said.
While perhaps the most touching example of the parish's commitment to helping refugees, these contributions are not the only components of St. James' work with Interfaith.
Over the years, the congregation has co-sponsored three refugee families, and church members regularly volunteer with new Americans. During "Blessings Week" last November, church members worked to improve the agency's donations stores, and this year, one Sunday in Advent will be designated "Interfaith Day."
Abrams said that Episcopalians and all people of faith have a responsibility to aid uprooted people, which stems from the United States' history of keepings its arms open to newcomers, but also extends beyond that.
As a parish, he said contact with refugee families has helped St. James better understand the complex realities of the world outside the church, and of its role within that world. It has also helped members live out their faith.
"A refugee family takes a parish family out of it's comfort zone, which is a good thing. It reminds us that we are blessed and as people who are blessed, we're called to give back, not in superficial ways, but in sacrificial ways," Abrams said.
"There are people in our world who are persecuted because of their beliefs and because of their ethnicity. If we can reach out to those people one at a time, I think we're doing what Christ has called us to do."
