Welcoming the Stranger

By the REV. JERRY BROOKS

More and more congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of New York are being joined by individuals and families who are relatively new to the United States. In parts of the diocese, it’s immigrants who fill formerly empty pews. In some congregations, recent immigrants are essentially the entire congregation.

This shouldn’t surprise us. We’ve always been a nation of immigrants, a nation shaped by immigrants. The United States continues to be reshaped by those joining us from foreign lands.

So many social issues are connected to immigration is some way: homelessness, hunger, family planning, child advocacy, civil rights, discrimination, healthcare, poverty, racism, nutrition, housing, family violence, unemployment, to name a few. However, percolating to the top of the list are at least three urgent needs: immigration legal services, English as a second language, and understanding community cultural norms.

How do we as a church respond, theologically and practically, and welcome the stranger? What do we do when the stranger shows up at our doorstep?
Here’s what’s happening in some of our parishes.

A project for day laborers
In Spring Valley, a town of a little over 25,000 just west of the Tappan Zee Bridge, immigrants looking for day work congregate beside busy Highway 59, the Korean War Veteran’s Memorial Highway, which makes for a dangerous situation. About three years ago, St. Paul’s parishioner Charles Butler decided to change things.

He began showing up on a regular basis, delivering food and coffee in cups that carried the name of the church. The idea at first was simply to encourage these workers, who spoke little or no English, to identify this outreach with St. Paul’s. It was then hoped that St. Paul’s parking lot, across the street, might be used as a better and safer place for workers to congregate, and offer cover in bad weather.

In July 2002, the workers were invited into the parish hall by Butler and the Rev. Angela Boatright, St. Paul’s priest-in-charge. Now, the parish hall is open from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pastries are donated.

The parish hall continues to be a place to wait when workers get cold or tired on the edge of Highway 59, or if they simply don’t want to go home, often a room shared with several others. St. Paul’s parish hall can be the “home base.”

The initial outreach effort by Butler, from the back of a pickup truck, has evolved from a place to hang out that’s off the highway to the Jornaleros Project, a multifaceted program affecting the personal lives of those workers.
The Jornaleros Project offers English classes. They begin by teaching simple phrases, such as “Please pay me in cash,” “Please pay me on the day I do your work,” and “Please pay me $10 an hour.” They try to offer an informational seminar every day, explaining local ordinances that immigrants might not expect, for example, disallowing alcohol consumption in public or loitering.

Butler now serves as administrative coordinator of the project. Social worker Doris Zuckerberg is on staff, along with Jenny Conway, a registered nurse, who does health screenings.

The program has given birth to a worshiping community twice a week, and this month will be tied in with free dinners offered twice a month.

“It’s being the gospel rather than preaching it,” Boatright explains. “Love is universal. Respect is universal.”

Immigration counseling and support in Yonkers
At Iglesia Memorial de San Andres in Yonkers, four programs are offered:
• Immigration counseling in collaboration with the Yonkers Alliance for Latino and Immigrant Services (YALIS)
• Group support for persons involved in the immigration process, facilitated by various professionals
• Entitlement counseling and guidance in accessing social and economic resources that will help children and adults improve the quality of their lives, supported by the parish, Episcopal Charities, the Diocese, and Trinity Grants.
• English classes for nonnative speakers, open to all residents of Yonkers.

Mid-Hudson Region Latino Ministry
The Mid-Hudson Region Latino Ministry provides sacramental, acculturation, and social services programs to the growing Spanish speaking populations in Dutchess, Ulster, Orange, and Sullivan Counties.

The program includes English-as-second-language classes, cross-cultural orientation, consultation and referral related to basic immigration issues, and interface with social service, education, and government agencies.

Congregations include La Virgen de Guadalupe at Christ Church, Poughkeepsie; El Buen Pastor at Church of the Good Shepherd in Newburgh; and Santa Cruz at Holy Cross Church in Kingston.

Episcopal Immigration Network: Help with green cards and citizenship
The idea of an Episcopal Immigration Network (EIN) had its roots in a February 2002 Doing Church workshop at which Bishop Mark Sisk recalled that we are an “immigrant church.” Welcoming the stranger is part and parcel of who we are.

Workshop participants were reminded that they each had parishioners who were undocumented and that, following 9/11, it had become quite a different world for these immigrants. The Immigration and Naturalization Service had been moved from the Department of Justice to Homeland Security—a shift from administration of justice to law enforcement and deportation.

The Rev. Canon Petero Sabune was at that workshop. He explains that parishes wanted information; they wanted to know how to help the new immigrant. The Lutheran Immigration Service was helpful, and so was the Catholic Immigration Service. But the feeling was that the Episcopal Church needed its own.

In 2003, a resolution was approved at the Diocesan Convention to survey what each parish is doing for immigrant workers in the diocese and to establish an Episcopal Immigration Network.

The first meeting was held in Mt. Vernon to begin the process of forming the Network whose purpose would be to train individuals to interpret, prepare, and submit immigration forms. Participants came from six churches: St. Luke’s, Bronx, St. Peter’s, Peekskill, Ascension, Mt. Vernon, St. Joseph’s, Co-op City, St. Simon’s, New Rochelle and St. Paul’s, Spring Valley.

Five people have now received training by Caribbean American Family Services and are qualified to assist with preparation of immigration forms and offer no-cost assistance in obtaining green cards.

The Rev. Emmanuel Sserwada, rector at Ascension, points out that the Roman Catholic Church has benefited greatly by providing services to immigrants.

When immigrants first come to this country, and the church puts out a hand to assist, they won’t forget it. They’ll remember it and stay with you.

“Residents complain about transients in their communities,” he continued. “Meanwhile, it’s the residents who hire them. They’re here, looking for a daily wage. The truth is that they’re not intending to return. The church should stand in between and be a reconciling agency.”

EIN will open counseling centers in three locations. The first center, at Ascension, Mount Vernon, will open January 7, 2006 and will be available on Wednesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The other two centers will open at a future date.

CAFS: Meeting the needs of Caribbean immigrants
Noticing that more could be done by the Episcopal Church to meet the needs of recently arrived immigrants—particularly those coming from the Caribbean islands—Hugh Beckford took steps in 1991. From St. Luke’s in the Bronx, where Beckford is a member, he formed the Caribbean and American Family Services (CAFS), a nonprofit organization. A primary goal was to help prevent disintegration of family structures, something he had been witnessing.
The first step in establishing CAFS was to become accredited by the New York State Department of Social Services as a “preventive social service agency.” Once that was accomplished, Beckford began distributing flyers advertising services. He drove from church to church, to night clubs, to any place where new immigrants congregated.

Fundamentally, Beckford explained, this is extremely important work because it helps to stabilize the families of thousands of immigrants from the Caribbean. Once the family is stabilized here, then disintegration is less likely.
Operating out of St. Luke’s and now Greene Middle School, CAFS offers a wide variety of services to immigrants, including assistance filing paperwork for citizenship, “citizenship” (civics) and English-as-second-language classes, assistance filing for green cards, counselling and advocating for immigration reform.

The citizenship classes are broader than simply test preparation. Sometimes legislators from local, state, and national government are invited to discuss various aspects of government.

Beckford runs the classes, with assistance from two volunteers. Carol Robinson, a professional educator, does the bulk of the work in the English language program. Valencia Wilson, from Antigua, is a Medicaid service coordinator.

Since its beginnings, CAFS has helped more than 4,000 immigrants obtain green cards and has enabled 7,000 to register to vote in U.S. elections.
A new CAFS initiative is to train volunteers to do outreach in various Episcopal churches, and to involve the national church in some way.
CAFS works closely with the New York Immigration Coalition and is a critical component in the Episcopal Immigration Network, providing training for volunteers who go into communities. Beckford pointed out that CAFS doesn’t just train Episcopalians. Individuals from other denominations are welcome as well.

Internationally recognized, CAFS receives inquiries from around the world as well as from New York and other parts of the United States.

Beckford describes the Episcopal Church’s recent growth as the result of newly arrived immigrants. St. Luke’s is one of the largest churches in the diocese. Many members were Anglican; now they’re Episcopalian.

“It’s a new thinking that we have to have today,” he said. “Yes, we need to strengthen our borders, and we need to make sure the people are of good moral character. But we have to understand that prosperity in this country has always been on the backs of immigrants, and it continues to make this country as strong as it is.”

“The problem for immigrants is that they’re getting ripped off,” he continued. “People don’t know how to get the information they need, and they’re duped—taken advantage of unscrupulously.”

According to Beckford, some lawyers and agencies are telling people there’s an amnesty when there is no amnesty. A person who later applies for a temporary work permit and Social Security number is put at risk of deportation. Agencies are charging up to $2,000 for assistance that may only require sending in a petition to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Episcopal Charities 2004 Basic Human Needs Grant recipients
In 2004, Episcopal Charities awarded a $15,000 Basic Human Needs grant for a literacy program at the Haitian Congregation of the Good Samaritan in the Bronx.

This English-as-second-language program annually serves 125 Haitian Creole immigrants during weekly classes. Its purpose is to provide recent immigrants with the English skills necessary to function in the United States, applying for jobs, asking for assistance or directions, and applying for citizenship.