This Week from Mitch
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I hope and pray that you are well. It has been a busy few weeks for me. First, we had the build-up to our parish weekend at Kanuga and our parish-wide day of service. It went great, and I want to thank Caitlyn for her work. Organizing jobs for 100-plus volunteers is no simple task. To her and all of our volunteers, thank you! I also want to thank the Kanuga committee led by Neal Rashley. They work hard to make our weekend in the mountains carefree and easy. When Kanuga wrapped up, Denise and I drove home, where I changed suitcases and immediately left for Chicago for a week of continuing education. Again, know I am grateful for the time.
During the week, I am sure, like many of you, I found my attention drifting. The tragedy of multiple plane crashes caused moments of sadness and a wave of executive orders and what they would mean for the church caused moments of confusion. That confusion is now becoming clearer.
As many of you have heard, Episcopal Migration Ministries will be scaling back extensively and eventually closing its doors. EMM began in the 1800s and grew rapidly in the 1930s. Since the 1980s, their work has been as a governmentally-contracted agency. Funds are allocated for refugee resettlement as part of our commitment to the UN, and then agencies like EMM provide the labor. During the week it became clear that that December and January’s reimbursement checks for services provided had been frozen. This freeze combined with the 2025 cut put the Episcopal Church in an untenable position. The same freeze is affecting Catholic Charities and Lutheran Services. We at St. Martin's have worked with both, and we have extensive relationships with Lutheran Services of the Carolinas and Lutheran Family Services here in the Midlands. In the past few years, St. Martin's has supported three refugee families who have migrated to our country legally. Two of these families are well into the program and are doing well, needing less of our support. One of the families, a Syrian family of eight, just arrived. They will need our support as they will no longer be assisted by federal grant money. I want you to know that our parish leadership is committed to fulfilling our responsibilities and commitment. To do so will require cooperation between our missions team, foundation, and vestry, but it is something I am sure we can do.
On a macro level things are a little less clear. Policies/cuts created with intentional cruelty and implemented so quickly seem to me to be a strategy that spreads fear and increases confusion. Calling Catholic Charities and Lutheran Services "criminal organizations" and "very bad people" while also cutting their funding affects not only refugee ministries but also two of our nation's not-for-profit leaders in adoption and foster care, hurting not only refugees but also women and children. This is morally wrong.
On page 148 of your Prayer Book is a prayer called the Great Litany. It is chanted each year in Lent and at every ordination. It is one of the oldest prayer services in the English language. The Great Litany goes into detail on what it means to be a people of a creedal faith in Jesus. We are reminded to pray for "women in childbirth, young children and orphans, the widowed, and all whose homes are torn by strife." We are reminded to show "pity upon prisoners and captives, the homeless and the hungry, and all who are desolate and oppressed." We are reminded that as Christians, we must resist all hardness of heart, sinful affections, vainglory, envy, hatred, and malice. We are reminded that we are to turn from these things in order that we might love as He loved us.
Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, Constitutionalist or Democratic Socialist, Capitalist or Communist, and even American are all labels that should be secondary to our primary label of Christian. When we choose to pick up our cross and follow Jesus, we choose to "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." In this righteousness, we are called to reject cruelty and hate in all of its forms, and when we fall into these things, which we will all do, we are reminded to repent and make ourselves through our prayer, labor, and repentance right with our Lord and those whom we have wronged.
I pray that our faith will inform our advocacy instead of our advocacy informing our faith. I pray that our faith may inform who and how we vote instead of how we vote informing our faith. I also pray that at the most basic level, when we see and hear words and actions of cruelty and hate enter into our public discourse that we will reject them outright. Our faith demands better.
In Christ,
Mitch