As United Church of Christ clergy, we are often asked, "What does the UCC say about immigration?"
With a nod to the more unique aspects of our congregational polity, that is a very difficult question to answer. Or, it could be said that it is a very easy question to answer. The easy answer is: "It depends."
The dependencies have much to do with the autonomy/responsibility relationship that each congregation has with the denomination as a whole. And, often, those dependencies lead to different responses from different settings.
When it comes to any conversations about the topic of Immigration, setting means everything. It is often said that Arizona is at Ground Zero for this topic, and the reason for that claim is that several (not all!) aspects of the Immigration issue are at play in Arizona: the border with Mexico, internationally recognized personalities in the Interior Enforcement arena, and the State of Arizona's relationship with privatized corrections companies charged with detaining those caught up in enforcement efforts.
Here are three clergy persons, all doing ministry in Arizona, with unique windows on different aspects of the Immigration issue, offering their perspectives through those windows:
The Rev Phil Reller served a UCC church in El Paso, TX before moving to Phoenix, Arizona. The Rev Randy Mayer has served a UCC church in Southern Arizona at the center of the swirling debate around border enforcement. The Rev Liana Rowe - a nearly 30 year resident of Phoenix - serves in a humanitarian capacity in the Southern Arizona Deserts as well as with mixed status families in Phoenix.
As a framework for what we will be about, here is a link to a site that explains a recent Speaking Tour around the state of New Hampshire by the Rev Liana Rowe that contains an audio recording of a presentation done in a UCC church in Peterborough. Scroll down the page a bit to find the post and the audio.
That you would have ears and hearts open to hear, these three Arizona UCC clergy share. Be well, be in Peace.
