The Episcopal Church’s Legacy in Supporting Refugees
The Episcopal Church (TEC) has an almost 40-year legacy of supporting refugees through the Episcopal Migration Ministries. TEC made national headlines in May when Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe released a letter to the public explaining the decision to end the organization’s refugee resettlement federal grant. This decision was announced two weeks after the government stated EMM was expected to resettle white Afrikaners while continuing to deny entry to nearly all other persons seeking resettlement in the U.S. as refugees. Many of the people being denied entry “have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,” stated Rowe, including “brave people who worked alongside [United States] military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country” and “victims of religious persecution, including Christians.”
How You Can Help
The Most Rev. Rowe’s letter acknowledged that replacing the full $50 million federal grant amount through fundraising alone was unrealistic. Below the Episcopal Community Foundation (ECF) of Middle and North Georgia presents ideas of how you can help if you want to support Episcopal Migration Ministries’ work to assist refugees and maintain the United States’ legacy as a safe haven for political and religious refugees worldwide.
- Be Knowledgeable. There is a wealth of toolkits and resources about refugee needs and how best to support them. In addition to Episcopal Migration Ministries, just a few of those organizations are the International Rescue Committee, New American Pathways, USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Whole Health Organization.
- Advocate. Write, call, and meet with your local, state, and federal elected officials so that all officials at all levels of government, in both the legislative and executive branches, can hear directly from you how important supporting international refugees is to you.
- Support. Middle and North Georgia have many refugee-owned businesses. By choosing to frequent these businesses, you are supporting refugees. The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute estimates 19.9% of the state’s entrepreneurs are refugees or immigrants, despite foreign-born persons only representing 11.6% of the population. One source for identifying these businesses is through the International Rescue Committee’s Refugee-owned Small Business Spotlights.
- Donate. Contribute to Episcopal Migration Ministries, and your support of the ECF also goes towards services for refugees and immigrants, which is one of our priority focuses.