blessing the fleet

The annual blessing of the fleet— of water trucks—went well today. Regular volunteers and board members were joined by Buddhist Jewish Lutheran and Episcopal clergy as well as the current vice-mayor of Tucson. Attendees gladly laid their hands on the trucks, at the invitation of our convener, adding their own blessings...

Humane Borders Blessing of the Fleet Participants, March 31, 2019

The Rev. John Leech
Priest of the Episcopal Church

Rev. Mateo Chavez
Pastor, San Juan Bautista, Lutheran Spanish Language congregation

Vice Mayor Richard Fimbres
Life long resident of Tucson,
32yr career in Tucson Sheriff's Dept. 
US Army Vet during Vietnam era

Br David Buer, OFM
Franciscan Friar .. intentional small community living

Rabbi Avraham Alpert
Cantor, Congregation Bet Shalom

Abbot Ajahn Sarayut Amanta
Tucson Buddhist Meditation Center and Wat Buddhametta

The Rev. Steven Keplinger 
Rector, Grace-St Paul's Episcopal Church

Dinah Bear
Chair for Humane Borders Board of Directors

Rev. John Hoelter
Director, Humane Borders

https://humaneborders.org/

Here is the prayer that I offered on Sunday afternoon 31 March 2019:

Bless these trucks,
accompany their crews, 
as you accompany us
in all our journey --

LORD prepare us to receive
the gift of the stranger.
Even as they are far off
let us embrace them as
long lost family. May we not
be jealous of your Bounty
but fully let the living water
of your love refresh
the wanderer, the homecomer,
the lost, the bereaved,
the watchful, the joyous,
and all in the name
of your Love. Amen.

fishing for souls - in the desert

For the Coracle - in the desert - February 26, 2019.

By the time you read this, certainly by the Day of Pentecost, the situation will have changed.

(What is really going on will remain; what is happening will be new - or is it always the reverse?)

Right now at the end of Epiphany season, at a former monastery - the shrine of perpetual adoration - the place has been transformed into a hospital in the best old Christian sense - like the hospital of Saint John near the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem - serving as a place offering respite for weary travelers, who receive hospitality: welcome, food, attention to medical needs, sleep, warm clothing, and a chance to connect with the folks ahead on their journeys and the people back home.

Here, quietly, with need for no fanfare, volunteers from various churches meet individuals and groups of people who seek asylum in the United States. They have been interviewed and released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and are headed by bus to connect with sponsors diaspora’d across the country - friend or family in Houston, New York, Chicago, D.C., Florida. They have come from Guatemala, Hondoras, El Salvador, Nicaragua. They tap the flags on the wall of the comedor as they go by, to show where they come from.

Fewer people than for many years now are arrested between legal ports of entry - though that continues, so does the desperation and the deaths alone in the forbidding desert - but more and many flood through the gates, released after initial interviews, found plausible in their cases for asylum.

There are cousins I have who exist because their father and his family, refugees from civil war, became citizens. He met a girl whose mother arrived as a small child from a faraway country. Now they are here and citizens.

Today’s travelers, gathered at the former monastery currently serving as a way-place of hospitality, have been accompanied by Our Lady of Guadalupe, or the Holy Child of Atocha. A century and a half ago, some of my ancestors were accompanied by a different holy figure, a former slave named Patrick. But they too sought sanctuary, freedom, and I hope a respite on the way served by hospitable people who saw what was really going on.

“It’s now, it’s real, it’s bad, it’s us, and there’s hope” — that is how an eminent scientist recently summed up for me the crisis of climate change. But it can serve to characterize also what is happening among immigrants today, on the U.S. southern border, in the Mediterranean, and between countries in south Asia.

That “there’s hope” means we’re not off the hook; there is something we can do.

What is really going on - people move, that’s what they do — continues. Our Lady of Guadalupe, our Saint Patrick of the captives of Ireland, Child of Atocha, pray for us. Jesus dwell with us forever.

—- John Leech, Tucson, Arizona.

The Coracle is the magazine of the Iona Community.

Aunt Carol's Bible

Everyone has a story to tell, that says who they are. In seminary we learned that the story of the people of Abraham can begin this way: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor…” (Dt 26.5)

Recently I began to wonder how that reads in the King James. So yesterday I got out Aunt Carol’s Bible and read Deuteronomy 26.5:  “A Syrian ready to perish was my father...”

As people of faith we are all children of Abraham, children of that Syrian in distress. That is our story.

And again I looked in Aunt Carol’s Bible, for the lesson for this Sunday, from the prophet Isaiah, and found it marked for me:

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. [rear guard]

(Isaiah 58:6, 8)

May we be your hands and your voice in this effort at common humanity. For we were strangers once…

You have brought us out of exile or danger or self-satisfaction. You have carried us through the wilderness of our own desires. You have been faithful where we have not. And yet you love us. Help us to share that love now with others. And bring them justice. Amen.

(Closing prayer for the Press Conference, Resettlement Agencies, Actual Refugees, and Faith Leaders Call Out The Truth About Refugees, 9.30am, Friday, February 3, 2017,  hosted by Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Tucson. Convened by Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest.)

"You are always welcome here!"

Spiritual Formation at St Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Tucson - Epiphany Season 2016

During Epiphany season our between-services course was entitled, “Welcoming the Hidden Christ – Meeting the Challenge of Migration and Hospitality,” from the Gospel saying “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35) We discussed such questions as: How can we as a community offer respite for refugees and strangers? What actions are we, both individually and as a community, taking to welcome the stranger — the hidden Christ? Engendering lively discussions among ourselves, we welcomed presenters from local organizations that offer hospitality to migrants and refugees.

First we had a visit from John Heid of Casa Mariposa who reconnected with old friends Carol and Kate Bradsen, and Fred Bevins. Casa Mariposa through its Restoration Project has provided hospitality to recently released detainees (from ICE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and visited people in detention in Eloy. (“Nourished and empowered by the Spirit, the Casa Mariposa community seeks to live in right relationship with one another, the community, and the earth through hospitality, simple and sustainable living, playful spirituality, and peaceful, prophetic action. The Restoration Project is work carried out by the community of Casa Mariposa in support and solidarity with women and men being held in immigration detention centers in Florence and Eloy, Arizona.”) In addition they witness to the challenge of migration and hospitality through participation in community events such as the Día de los Muertos Pilgrimage to Mission San Xavier del Bac, the All Souls Procession through downtown Tucson, and the Binational Las Posadas at the Nogales Sonora/Arizona border.

Toetie Oberman and Sang Yeon spoke to us about the work of two ministries of Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, Refugee Focus and Center. (“LSS-SW resettles approximately 1,000 refugees each year as they strive toward previously unknown goals, strengthen newfound bounds, and courageously rebuild their lives. Services include: pre-arrival housing, case management, English classes, navigating transportation and basic public services, employment support, after-school activities and tutoring for children, programs to develop self-sufficiency and skills for women, and immigration services. CENTER is a hub for refugee students, parents, teachers, schools, volunteers, and other nonprofits that work with them across Tucson.”)

Sunday February 7^th, we plan to greet Jamie Flynn from Alitas, a program of Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona. (“The Alitas Program serves migrant women and children who have left their home countries to escape violence and poverty. We provide care, short-term shelter and help to reunite with family members in the U.S.”)

Refugee Focus and the Alitas Program welcome refugees from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The other local agency that provides hospitality to refugees arriving from overseas is The International Rescue Committee of Tucson – and they will be with us to celebrate Mardi Gras!

During Lent our spiritual formation course will be built around the ancient practice of lectio divina (sacred reading) …

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

Tucson, Arizona

"You are always welcome here!"

http://standrewstucson.azdiocese.org/