Washington bishop’s plea to Trump inspires first-time visits to Episcopal churches
By Shireen Korkzan
[Episcopal News Service] Cheryl Mirabella left the Catholic Church when she was a young adult and went on a yearslong “spiritual safari” through different denominations.
“I have a very deep spiritual life … but I didn’t really feel like I was getting what I needed through church,” she told Episcopal News Service.
Mirabella accidentally tuned in to the Jan. 21 Service of Prayer for the Nation at Washington National Cathedral and listened to Washington Bishop Mariann Budde’s plea to President Donald Trump to show mercy to “the people in our country who are scared now” – specifically LGBTQ+ people and immigrants.
"Just hearing Budde say the most basic tenets of Christianity, it honestly blew my mind. It was not something that I was aware of that was even being preached anywhere."
“I was so impressed by her kindness and her words, so I immediately went and downloaded her book (‘How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith’) on Audible and … listened to the whole book while taking a solo trip down to Arches National Park in Moab,” Mirabella said. “I was so inspired by her and her words and her journey through life.”
Then on Sunday, Mirabella went to her local Episcopal parish, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Park City, Utah, to check out the Jan. 26 worship service.
“The priest, a woman, got up and her first words were to welcome us … That felt really good,” she said. “What Jesus teaches us is not representative of what a lot of denominations are now.”
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Episcopal bishops uphold sanctuary policies, oppose threat of immigration arrests in churches
By David :Paulsen
[Episcopal News Service] A growing number of Episcopal bishops are speaking out in response to the Trump administration’s threat to fulfill a campaign promise of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, possibly including raids in churches and other places that previous presidents had deemed off-limits for such enforcement.
Arizona Bishop Jennifer Reddall, in a newspaper op-ed and in a recent radio interview, has opposed border enforcement officers making arrests in churches. She also specified that family separations are among the diocese’s biggest concerns since President Donald Trump took office this week.
“In our congregations, we’re worried about how these [policies] are going to be enforced,” Reddall said in her interview with KJZZ-FM. “There are norms that say you don’t invade churches to arrest people, but those are just norms. … We aren’t sure if we’re going to be targeted.”
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Below, an immigrant family listens to Nora Sandigo as she discusses the process of becoming the legal guardian for their children on Jan. 19 in Miami, Florida. Several immigrants families asked Sandigo to be the legal guardian of their children in case they are detained or deported. Photo: Associated Press
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