Archival Research Reveals Details of Church's Early Ministry to Refugees

It's widely acknowledged that the Episcopal Church has been ministering to refugees and other uprooted individuals for several decades. But a recent look back into the Church's archives offered another layer of detail into how the Church's commitment was developed in the years before World War II and how it was sustained throughout the 20th century, up to the present day.

History is an important consideration in all of Episcopal Migration Ministry's work; in fact, the traditions of the refugee ministry are reflected in our logo, which was derived from a campaign poster created by the Diocese of Southern Ohio in 1938.

The image of the Holy Family in flight from King Herod accompanied a tagline intended to rally support for Jews and other refugees from Germany who were being persecuted by the fascist regime: "In the Name of These Refugees, Aid All Refugees."

The Church had worked in service to immigrants in many other contexts prior to this campaign. But the diocesean efforts to raise awareness about the "refugee problem" served as the seeds that would eventually grow into EMM and a host of other entities that have served thousands of vulnerable migrants on behalf of the Church over nearly 75 years.

In a report issued by the Church's National Council in 1953, Edith Denison catalogued the first 15 years of the the Church's refugee ministry. Dennison, who served as the Church's Resource Secretary in charge of catalyzing Episcopal support for refugees, offered some highlights from those early years, before the United States administered a formal refugee resettlement system.

A series of grassroots campaigns  and organizational meetings led to the creation of an Episcopal Committee for European Refugees in 1939. This committee educated the Church about refugees, referred uprooted migrants to partner service agencies and, in late 1939, secured funding from within the Episcopal Church to transport about a dozen Czech families to the United States. These families were the first of many refugees to be resettled by the Church.

Throughout 1940, the Committee for European Refugees continued to solicit large donations and $200 affadavits from individual members of the Church. These efforts eventually led to the resettlement of 250 individuals from Central Europe before the onset of World War II made that work impossible.

At the General Convention in 1940, Presiding Bishop Henry St. George Tucker called upon the Church to take responsibility for ministering to those suffering from the war. In response to this call, in December of 1940, the Church's National Council created the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief which served refugees and administered the Church's resettlement efforts for nearly 50 years prior to the creation of EMM as a separate ministry unit in 1988.

At the conclusion of World War II in 1945, the Church amassed significant resources to provide material aid to displaced sufferers in Europe and Asia through relationships with Sister Churches and ecumenical partnerships.

A challenge from the Presiding Bishop at the 1946 General Convention galvanized the Church into a fundraising campaign that netted more than $3.5 million dollars for relief and development in war-torn regions between 1946-1948.

And in 1949, the Church's Department for Christian Social Relations joined an effort through Church World Service to begin resettlement of refugees to the U.S. Between 1949 and 1952, the Episcopal Church welcomed more than 2,500 displaced persons from 17 different nations to peace and safety in the United States.

In the years since, the Church has maintained its commitment to serving some of the most vulnerable people in the world. And while the impacts of war, persecution and displacement around the world have been tragically consistent throughout that period, the Church's efforts over this span have led to safety and hope for tens of thousands of refugees.

EMM is proud to be carrying forward this tradition today.

As of January 31, 2012, EMM affiliates had assisted 1,054 refugees since the start of the fiscal year on October 1, 2011. This work is carried out with the support of parishes and community volunteers across many dioceses of the Episcopal Church.

Those refugees comes from the following regions:

Africa: 253 refugees
Near East and South Asia: 478 refugees
East Asia: 287 refugees
Latin America and Caribbean: 34 refugees

Europe and Central Asia: 2 refugees

Chris Cavanaugh, sub-office director with our Grand Rapids affiliate partners at Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, was featured on a local radio station explaining the benefits of our Matching Grant employment program in service refugees' long-term needs.

Tial Thang, a Burmese refugee and high school wrestler, told his courageous story to the Syracuse Post-Standard. Thang was assisted in his resettlement by our parters at Interfaith Works of Central New York.

Geleta Mekonen is the assistant director in our Houston affiliate office at Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston and a former refugee from Ethiopia. Geleta was profiled by the Houston Chronicle for his 20 years of service to the local refugee community.

Our partners at RefugeeOne were lauded for the transformative work they do in welcoming newly arriving refugees to Chicago in this article published in the Chicago Tribune.

This newsletter is produced with support from the United States Department of State. Opinions expressed here may not reflect the positions of the Department of State.

Episcopal Service Corps Member Builds Lasting Friendship with Refugees

Cuyana Davis-Carter has been serving as a full-time volunteer with RefugeeOne, EMM's Chicago affiilate partner, since September, 2011. She became involved in the refugee ministry through The Julian Year, a year-long service experience for young leaders in Chicago facilitated by the Episcopal Service Corps.

Tom Hartman is Assistant Director for External Affairs and Fundraising for RefugeeOne. He said Cuyana's presence has been a gift to the agency.

"Cuyana has been a great resource, and if other haven't explored accessing (Episcopal Service Corps) I can't recommend it enough," Hartman said. "We certainly got a skilled, compassionate and energized employee for a year.

Through her service experience, Cuyana has been powerfully impacted by her work with Abdulkarim, a Sudanese refugee with two young children. She was kind enough to offer this reflection about that relationship, and her service through the Julian Year as a whole:

I learned of The Julian Year while weighing my options in preparation for graduation. The Episcopal Service Corps program, inspired by the 14th century mystic Julian of Norwich, stressed the importance of being able to organize power for justice and develop reflective and spiritual practices; areas that I desired to experience growth in.

Once learning of my acceptance, RefugeeOne caught my attention as a site at which to spend my year in Chicago.  Not only did the internship offer insight into the inner workings of a non-profit, but the opportunity for me to engage in direct service to people who had experienced some of the worst injustice imaginable.

Shortly after starting, I learned of the RefugeeOne Adult Mentorship Program. My first mentoring meeting with Abdulkarim –– a widowed Sudanese man with two small children — began in September, 2011. Leading up to the meeting, I couldn’t shake the image of an awkward encounter filled with blank stares and moments where words were lost in translation.

Thankfully, our first meeting, and the subsequent meetings, went smoother than I had imagined. I have been able to learn, piece by piece, about his life in a refugee camp in Kenya, as well as his life in The Sudan. I also have been able to see the excitement he has for himself and his children – Abdulmunim (7), and Selima (5) – to start over in Chicago.

Working with Abdulkarim Lazim and his family is more than just teaching English.  Being his mentor means being among the people he can count on to show up. It means working hard to maintain a friendship despite language barriers. It also means forcing myself to watch a few episodes of All in the Family, something I have recently made peace with.

I wholeheartedly value the relationship I have with the Lazim family. I am more eager than ever to be current with international relations so that I am more knowledgeable about the situation they have come from. They have become further inspiration for me to remain called to action. I am greatly humbled by Abdulkarim’s commitment to creating a better opportunity for his children, something any father would want.

His eagerness and determination to be self-sufficient are what make working with Abdulkarim wonderful. His energy gives me the extra incentive to ensure he meets the goals he has for his life here. Though our futures are filled with uncertainty, I am glad that we can share the moments that we have now, together.

Young Adult Leaders Explore Refugee Issues, Pledge to Spread the Word

When Episcopal Migration Ministries holds its annual conference in Atlanta in March a small delegation of special guests will join the usual roster of affiliate partners, governmental representatives and Church supporters.

The Episcopal Church Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministries will enter the conversation around refugee concerns this year, as young adult representatives from some of the dioceses in which EMM operates convene for a leadership institute on refugee issues.

Participants will visit EMM's Atlanta affiliate -- Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta -- to learn about refugees and their experiences within local communities, and to engage in a one-day service project. They'll also meet with EMM's national staff, Episcopal church members and clergy serving refugees in Atlanta, and representatives from many of EMM's local partner offices.

The young adult leadership institutes cultivate the next generation of leaders within the Episcopal Church around a wide range of social justice concerns. Participants benefit from intensive educational and service opportunities, access to leaders in the field, and time to reflect and plan their response to issues that demand the Church's attention.

Jason Sierra is the Officer for Young Adult Leadership and Vocations at the Episcopal Church Center. 

"I think this institute is an opportunity to raise the profile of refugee concerns among young adults and to find new ways to tell the story so that it connects with the very real, higher-profile concerns of war, injustice, human rights, immigration, environmental degradation, and intercultural community," Sierra said. "Refugee resettlement and refugee concerns offer a way for young adults to see the ramifications of these worldwide issues playing out in their own communities."

Young adult participants will take their direct service experiences and their conversations with refugee advocates back to their home dioceses. As a response to the week's events, they'll develop a scriptural reflection that can be used to reach out to other young adults throughout the church.

"I really hope we can take the first steps to raise up and empower young leaders who can advocate both inside and outside the church from a faith perspective on refugee concerns," Sierra said. "The Church's many ministries need new energy, new hands, and new perspectives, and we have the capacity to inspire young leaders with the work being done, if we find new ways to tell the story."