Florida-Bahamas Synod ELCA

Immigration

Bishop Ed Benoway serves as a member of the ELCA Conference of Bishops Ready Bench on Immigration. A ready bench includes church leaders who are prepared to present public witness on a specific issue of national significance. In concert with this assignment, Bishop Benoway appointed the Immigration Task Force to help keep abreast of immigration developments. Pastor Jon Keiser chairs the task force; other members include local immigration attorney Krista Eyler, retired LSF/LIRS staff Danielle Kearney, and Pastor Russell Meyer, synod webminister and Executive Director of the Florida Council of Churches.

The following web pages provide resources to support the biblical ministry of welcoming the immigrant among us.

Creating a New Immigration System

The Bishop's Immigration Task Force asked Deacon Zack Koczanski, member of the Lutheran Church of Our Savior and owner of The Newhouse Media Group, to produce a video about Dreamer's - students brought to the US as children without proper documentation. Task force members include Pr Jon Keiser (chair), Krista Eyler Esq., Danielle Kearney, and Pr Russell Meyer.

They're called DREAMers because they have a dream that one day soon Congress will create a process that gives them a chance to earn their citizenship. This is the true story of two DREAMers (undocumented youth who came to this country as children). This is the only country they have ever known. Yet they are caught in the Immigration Web. In Florida alone, over 85,000 youth are in this dilema. This documentary was developed by the Florida Bahamas Synod - Bishop's Task Force on Immigration. Its purpose is to raise awareness of this issue and stimulate discussion to help resolve this issue.

Immigration Video from 2011 Assembly

The Immigration Task Force presents the resources below for developing and sustaining immigration ministries. See the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service blog for current issue updates: http://blog.lirs.org/category/immigration/

Task Force on Immigration

Outline of Task Force Presentation at 2011 Synod Assembly

I was a stranger and you welcomed me
- The Lutheran church is an immigrant church.
- They are us!
- Be Informed - Be in Ministry - Be an Advocate - Be a Welcoming People

Immigration Advocacy

Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Respect all persons as human beings, Americans and family members
Relief from policies that tear families apart, create fear and division, and increase victimization
Reform of immigration policies to provide security, re-unite families, establish pathways to citizenship

Websites of interest:

ELCA Advocacy
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services
Florida Immigrant Coalition
National Immigrant Justice Center
Justice for Immigrants
Reform Immigration for America

DREAM in the Last Days of 2010

'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. (Act 2:17)

Each Spring, thousands of high school students graduate to a dead end. It doesn’t matter how talented, gifted, smart or energetic they are. They’ve simply reached the end of the line. Unless the United States Senate acts now to pass the DREAM Act. These young people are called Dreamers because the DREAM Act is in part for them. To me they are prophets and visionaries. I want my senator to be the dreamer.

December 18 is International Migrant Day
— the day the US Senate blocked a vote on the DREAM Act.

Bishop Hanson Calls for Reform

Pastoral Letter on Immigration Reform from Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson

homepage1_3.ashx July 13, 2010

Sisters and brothers in Christ,

The time has come for immigration reform in the United States. Yes, the issues are complex and not easily resolved. It is understandable that people are wary of engaging this politically and emotionally charged issue.

Yet it would be tragic if we withdrew as people of faith and our voices fell silent. We have an opportunity for evangelical witness to our faith in God who is present in the stranger and calls us to extend hospitality. "Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God" (Romans 15:7 NRSV).

The biblical witness is clear. The distinctions that so often divide humankind are overcome in Christ. By grace through faith on account of Christ we are joined together in a radically inclusive community. "For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26-28).

Because God mercifully extends gracious hospitality in restoring us to community, we have a clear calling. That call is heard in God's command to the people of Israel, "You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ... Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house" (Deuteronomy 10:19; 26:11).

Most, but not all, Lutherans in the United States are the descendants of immigrants or are recent immigrants. Others are descendants of slaves brought to this country or people who lived here before the arrival of the first Europeans and Africans. Our personal histories and faith stories are of an immigrant people moving in search of freedom, opportunity and safety.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is being renewed by the faith and witness of new and recent immigrants. This year 23 of 41 new ELCA ministry starts will be in immigrant communities, and more than 100 African national ministries have begun in the past three years.

We cannot welcome people into the ELCA, however, without caring about their lives, their concerns and their experiences as newcomers in this country. For that reason the ELCA repeatedly has affirmed the biblical witness and our shared experience, culminating in an affirmation by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly "that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) are committed to work toward comprehensive [immigration] reform that balances respect for the law with the recognition of due process and respect for humanitarian principles." Stating that "the nation's immigration system is broken, and Congress and the administration must work together to find a just and humane solution while assuring orderly migration," LIRS identifies four foundational values for immigration reform:

keeping families together
maintaining basic human and worker rights
helping our new neighbors come out of the shadows
seeking a path to permanence for our new neighbors

As you serve in your communities, I commend to you resources for study and action (Toward Compassionate, Just, and Wise Immigration Reformother resources) [2009] and, the voices of immigrant families and believers, and the witness of the Scriptures.

The concluding words of the Message on Immigration (1998) remind us "that all of us in the Church of Jesus Christ are sojourners, 'For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come' (Hebrews 13:14). As we journey together through the time God has given us, may God give us the grace of a welcoming heart and an overflowing love for the new neighbors among us."

In God's grace,

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America