UUCA Has a History of Solidarity with Immigrants

Comment

Comment by Cynthia Adcock on September 2, 2010 at 2:29pm

I was just reminded that members of our congregation played an important role in gathering hundreds of people to march in Washington for comprehensive immigration reform earlier this year. Louise Van Horne was a terrific leader of that effort. So our involvement with immigration continues, this year.

Comment by Cynthia Adcock on August 30, 2010 at 12:00pm

Thank you, Rev. Linda, for sharing this info. I was especially pleased to see that the church had been a sanctuary for undocumented refugees. That takes courage and vision. This issue has so many facets--from Arizona's law and possible UU civil disobedience, to helping keep immigrant families together despite threats of deportation, to helping develop effective sustainable incomes for people without papers, and on to the critical question of how to get comprehensive immigration reform through Congress? And I like Sharon's reminder of how immigration and migration shape all the history of the Americas--going back even 40,000 years, some of the archeology indicates. Even the "First Peoples" of this continent came from elsewhere originally. Ecological and economic stress pushes people to leave "home" -- in the words of Holly Near, maybe this time "together we can make a safe home."

Comment by Sharon G. Williams on August 28, 2010 at 1:21pm

Just a thought...This is not intended to take away from your central thesis about immigration being an important social justice focus of this congregation.

I know your blog is about other people who have immigrated to America and our continuing support over the last sixty years. I completely agree with that.

Our discussion of immigration should include our own migration/immigration stories because all of us have migrated to different places in our lives. We are all related to people who have migrated to other parts of the country and to other parts of the world. We are all immigrants. Why do we separate ourselves from our own migration/immigration story?

We have the tendency as native born people to set ourselves outside of the immigration story when we are most definitely part of it and to make the immigrant the other.

Comment by Rev. Linda Olson Peebles on August 16, 2010 at 4:52pm

Sharon - Thanks for this more recent history. There is MUCH that could be written about what UUCA has done with and for immigrants in the past 10 years (in fact, we will be featured in an upcoming UU WORLD article). But we can find grounding by learning about 30, 40, and 50 years ago. The point of my post "UUCA Has a History" was to show that from UUCA's early days, standing up for immigrants has been an issue important to our ministry and witness in northern VA.

Comment by Sharon G. Williams on August 15, 2010 at 2:43pm

A handful of UUCA members went to Prince William County in 2007 in solidarity with the immigrants there.

Comment by Jacomina de Regt on August 11, 2010 at 8:44pm

Excellent question.. let's ponder what UUCA can do in this environment of fear mongering