News and Views

 

 

On Dec. 13, the Rev. Neal Christie, the BWC’s  Executive Minister of Connected Engagement, spoke on behalf of Bishop LaTrelle Easterling at a rally on Capitol Hill focusing on the moral imperatives of the 2021 Build Back Better Budget and the need not to overlook this opportunity to keep our promise to the 11 million immigrant adults and 1.5 million immigrant children who aspire to a path to full citizenship in our country.  The march was hosted by the Congregation Action Network/Faith in Action and We Are Home Campaign.

Friends, please receive these words and this prayer offered from Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling, Bishop of the Baltimore Washington Conference and the Peninsula Delaware Conference of The United Methodist Church.

 To fully recognize the intention that Christ was born in a stable in Bethlehem, we must commit ourselves to pray, ponder, and perform acts that glorify God and build Beloved Community.

Let us pray: God Incarnate, in this holy Advent we gather from across many races, ethnicities, and faith traditions.

We bear in mind the way Christ has lived, Christ has died, and Christ has promised to come again.

We proclaim that Christ suffered as our immigrant siblings do today, from systems of fear, prejudice, exclusion, and oppression.

We remember that as Christ suffered, immigrants who have been forcibly displaced and seek a place to make a home in our common country.

We hold on to the hope that as Christ will come again, we look for Christ among those forced to live in the margins of society.

We pray for a pathway to citizenship for every Dreamer and temporary farm worker, and their beloved families so that we will provide a way to remove the fear endured by too many of Christ’s people. Every one of the 11 million adult immigrants and 1.5 million immigrant students and children are an essential part of Christ’s living body.

We pray for the potential good that the Build Back Better Act (2021) can have on our country’s most vulnerable, neglected, and disparaged populations and on Earth herself.

We pray for acts of security and safety that we can offer today to immigrants who have sought escape from religious and political persecution, famine, war, disaster, domestic violence and all forms of coercion and abuse, and who live among us in abject fear and threat of family separation or deportation.  

We pray in this season as hope rises again from a manger, that this budget as a moral document will lead to promises fulfilled. We pray for a rebirth of spiritual vigor and courage and open-hearted political good will to ensure that all immigrants have full access to the benefits and protections that are reflected in an inclusive and moral budget.

We pray for a renewed spirit of hospitality so that immigrants who are sick will be able to take time off to recover and heal and to care for their loved ones. We pray that immigrants will have full access to affordable health care.

We pray for the virtue of compassion and love demonstrated in wages earned that affirm immigrant’s worth and work and affords them full protection, paid sick days and family and medical leave, worker protections and enforcement of fair labor standards.

We pray for an attitude of hospitality so that all immigrants who seek refuge can contribute their talents to the common good and can benefit from public programs that so many people in our nation already enjoy, including nutrition services for children, access to education for youth, and safe housing.

We pray trusting that anything we can imagine doing we can find the way and achieving and affording if we prioritize your Gospel values.

Incarnate God, watch and wait with us because we cannot do this alone. Prepare us to bear witness. Encourage us to rejoice and celebrate. Focus on the promise of new birth today and in the weeks ahead. We pray that we will take our light out into the world until every immigrant is treated as a whole child of God, and we share in your one household filled with joy together. Amen.