Notes From the Border

Leaving Home: Immigration Through the Eyes of Children

What would it take for you to leave your home and your country? How would you hope to be welcomed? What would give you a sense of belonging?

These are some of the questions I explored when I joined thirteen pilgrims on a Lenten Border Pilgrimage in Arizona, sponsored by Episcopal Migration Ministries. For two and a half days, we participated in a desert retreat, “Leaving Home: Immigration through the Eyes of Children.” Our pilgrimage then brought us to ministry with immigrants, first at Casa Alitas, a transitional welcome center in Tucson for asylum seekers, and then on the US-Mexico border, with the Tucson Samaritans, who provide food and water for migrants in the desert.

In 2019, Casa Alitas experienced an influx of migrants from the northern triangle region of Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras). A local artist (one of our retreat leaders) set up an art room and invited children to draw what they loved.

When we entered the retreat space at the Episcopal Church of the Apostles in Oro Valley, Arizona, the children’s art filled the room, mounted on display panels. Some of the art showed what they had left behind

 

some art depicted the children’s belief in God

and some reflected their experience of detention.

I am haunted by the eyes. Two of the drawings showed only eyes wide open, perhaps indicative of trauma, giving me a new perspective on the eucharistic prayer we use during Lent, when we pray to “feed on Christ with eyes wide open.”

Art infused our retreat in other ways. We spent a morning walking “The Way of Asylum,” a meditation on the stations of the cross. Another retreatant commented that the stations of the cross took on new meaning for her, helping her to connect Jesus to our lives today.

 

 

During the retreat, we learned about the Migrant Quilt Project, which tells the story of migrants who have died in the desert.The quilts are made from clothing and other fabric items discarded in the desert. Each quilt tells the stories of migrantswho died in Arizona during the year, using records from county medical examiners and the US government. The organization Humane Borders/ Fronteras Compasivas has tracked deaths in Arizona and created a map, and a volunteer is placing crosses at the site of every death.

This map is on display at Casa De La Esperanza in the border town of Sasabe, Mexico.

 

 

Our experience of ministry with migrants was limited; we didn’t have much time. I spent an hour in the clothing room at Casa Alitas, helping men select an item of donated clothing. A group of us drove the border with one of the Tucson Samaritan volunteers, who was surprised that we had no direct encounters with any migrants that day. We spotted just two or three people at a distance in the Mexican desert, so we left gallon jugs of water on the other side of the wall. At least one was gone when we returned.

Some of our group journeyed instead to the border crossing at Nogales, where they added flowers to a memorial for a migrant.

Reflecting on the experience, I recognized a vast web of people responding compassionately to migrants and refugees – Samaritans driving a four-wheeler along the border; quilters telling the story of migrant deaths; volunteers and staff at Casa Alitas and similar shelters offering welcome and care to their guests; advocates pressuring Congress for humane treatment of migrants and immigration reform; donors who help meet the needs of the migrants. I wonder where my place is, and invite you to consider your response.

-Ruth Meyers

From the Isaiah Project

Repairing the Breach: The Isaiah Project Begins its Work

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?“ – Isaiah 58:6

Our congregation responded to the Living Water Capital Campaign with great generosity.  In connection with the campaign, the Vestry voted unanimously to commit a tithe – 10 percent – of the pledged funds to a small number of projects that seek to meet the needs and do the work of justice in our surrounding East Bay communities.  An All Souls team has been meeting since last September to consider the harms in our communities that are in need of repair and to make recommendations to the Vestry on what projects to fund.  The team currently consists of the following members: Phil Brochard; Nathan Brostrom; Wendy Calimag; Lewis Maldonado; Toni Martinez-Borgfeldt; Paul Mathew; Mark Mattek; and Christine Trost.

In the fall of 2022, the Isaiah Project team evaluated the focus areas we should consider and what type of impact we hope the All Souls’ grants to have.  In October, we met with Cristina Alvarez, the Executive Director of the Episcopal Impact Fund, which does similar work on a much larger scale at the diocesan level, and learned a tremendous amount about the grant process.  In November, we held two listening sessions with the congregation to determine what focus areas our congregation believes are most important to consider.  We also did our own reading and reflection and had heartfelt discussions as a team.  

In December of 2022, we made the following four focus area recommendations to the Vestry:

Striving for racial reparations is the major theme underlying all four of these focus areas.  

The one caveat in our recommendations was that the team was not yet certain whether to fund grants in all four areas or to limit the grants to three areas with somewhat larger grants.  We will make that determination when we get further into the process.

The Vestry approved our recommendations at its December meeting.  As the next stage of our work, our team is spending some time looking at the history of the harms in our East Bay communities.  The geographic area we are considering is from Richmond in the north to San Leandro in the south.  A recently published book, Reparations: A Plan for Churches, by the Rev. Peter Jarrett-Schell, an Episcopal priest, suggests that, in order to the work of repair, we must acknowledge what we do not know, ask questions, and seek to learn something about the history of our surrounding communities – “truth-finding”, as the author calls it.  In addition to doing some review of the history of harms in our major East Bay cities, this information-gathering will include taking a look at the All Souls archives to see whether there is any relevant All Souls history that would inform our work.    

Our team will spend the next few months with this process and hope to reduce something of what we have learned to writing.  Sometime in the fall of 2023, we will hold additional listening sessions with the congregation to share what we have learned, to highlight some of the organizations we are considering funding, and to hear the congregation’s thoughts about where we are in the process before we make any final recommendations to the Vestry.  Final decisions on funding would likely occur in 2024.  Our hope is to make multi-year grants of two to three years, which we believe would have the greatest impact.

To make a commitment to the work of “repairing the breach” is very humbling.  As we go through our lives as a faith community here in Northern California, we all see how much in our communities is in need of repair.  The Isaiah Project team very much appreciates the support that the Vestry and the congregation as a whole have shown for our work.  We ask for your prayers as we move into the next stage of this project.

-Lewis Maldonado

Weekly Worship

Join us for worship this week:

• 9am, in-person, indoors 
• 11:15am, in-person, indoors. (click here to access the live stream)
• 5p, the Sunday Night Service, in-person, indoors, in the Chapel.

You can access the live stream through our website or by tuning into our All Souls Episcopal Parish Youtube page. Click here to watch on Sunday morning. 

If you miss a Sunday, you can always catch the sermon on our homepage or as a podcast, anywhere you listen to podcasts! 

Wednesday 9am Service

Join the Zoom call here, or join us in person in the Nave at 9a. Password: 520218.

Formation

Adult Formation Classes

• Reading Between the Lines Bible Study @ 7:30a. Click here to join by Zoom, or join them in-person in the Common Room.
• Reading Between the Lines Bible Study @ 10:15a. Click here to join by Zoom, or join them in-person in Phil’s old office, (now called the Shadrach Room).
• Mission, Race, and Empire: April 16, 23, and 30 @10:15a in the Parish Hall or on Zoom (click here).

• Dr. Jennifer Snow, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at CDSP, will give a series of three talks on the history of the Episcopal Church in the context of Mission, Race, and Empire, drawn from her forthcoming book from Oxford University Press. The talks will draw from the complex interactions of the church’s mission and identity with the British Empire and the expansion of the United States through indigenous lands; the history of enslavement, emancipation, and Civil Rights; the development of a theology of “welcome” and inclusion in the 20th century; and contemporary debates, conflicts, and uncertainty about the church and its mission in the modern world.

Children, Youth, and Family News

Nursery The downstairs nursery is open and available to you for your use whenever you’re at All Souls. This is not a staffed nursery, so an adult must be there with your child, but if you need a quiet place to take a time out, change a diaper, let your child play or take a rest, the nursery is open for you to do all of those things. If there is a service going on that’s being livestreamed, you will be able to watch the livestream on the computer in the nursery as well.

Sunday School This week, join us for Children’s Chapel during the 9:00am service! Children are invited to follow the Children’s Chapel leaders down the center aisle after the gospel reading, and rejoin their families before communion!

Youth Morning check-in for youth, as well as youth group return this Sunday! Morning check in meets in the Fiery Furnace Room at 10:10am, and Youth Group also meets there from 7-8:30pm.

Confirm Not Conform continues this week at 10:10 in Maggie’s Office.

Faithful Families the next Faithful Families will be Thursday, April 27th from 5:30-7:15pm! Join us for dinner, intergenerational formation, and a short evening prayer service.

Save the Date! Youth Walking Pilgrimage to Grace Cathedral: May 21st after the 9am service for grades 6-12! Click Here for more information.

Email Maggie for more information about Children, Youth and Family Ministries at All Souls.

Episcopal Summer Camp Registrations are Now Open!

Episcopal Camps across the country are starting to open for registration, including the Diocese of California’s not one, but TWO summer camps: St. Dorothy’s Rest, and The Bishop’s Ranch. You can find more information about the dates, age ranges, and cost for each camp at the links below:

St. Dorothy’s Rest

The Bishop’s Ranch

Other News & Notes

Come Celebrate Earth Day and Help Clean the Berkeley Waterfront

The City of Berkeley is organizing a cleanup of trash and plastic pollution along the Berkeley shoreline at Shorebird Park on Saturday morning, April 22, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am.  A group of All Soulsians will be participating in honor of the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day.  We will gather at the Shorebird Park Nature Center, 160 University Avenue, at 9:00 am.  (If you can’t join us until a little later in the morning, that’s OK.) Bring gloves and a bucket if possible. Some extra gloves may be available.   Following the beach cleanup, feel free to stay for the Berkeley Bay Festival from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. At this free, family-focused event, you can connect with the Bay and our local community through live music, performers, food, hands-on educational activities, and free boat rides. 

Please email Lewis Maldonado at Lewiscm@mac.com if you are able to join us.  Sponsored by the All Souls Justice and Peace Ministry Team.  For map and details see:  https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/events/earth-day-cleanup

Sacred Earth Conversations

Join Sacred Earth: Growing Beloved Community on April 22nd at 7 pm as we welcome The Rev. Dr. Rachel Mash from Capetown, South Africa, Coordinator of the world-wide Anglican Communion Environmental Network. Honored as a presenter at the United Nations and Parliament of the World Religions, she co-founded Green Anglicans, the Care for Creation movement of the Anglican Church. 

Come with Bishop Marc Andrus and Dr. Paloma Pavel to meet this inspiring world faith leader on April 22nd. In the spirit of growing beloved community, especially during Earth Week in April, we encourage “each one to bring one”, and reach out to those in your life with whom you are seeking to expand your impact for climate and environmental justice. (zoom link to follow), head to the diocesan page for more information: www.faithinformed.org/sacred-earth.

Need a parking spot?

We’ve got a parking lot under the Jordan Court apartment building that is available to anyone with challenges with mobility or anyone who regularly drives someone with challenges with mobility. If that is you, and you would like access to the parking garage on Sundays or other times when you are at the church, please reach out to Annie Rovzar, annie@allsoulsparish.org.

​​Spaghetti Again Mens’ Dinner

Join some of the men from this parish for a monthly dinner in the Parish Hall. April 24th at 6p. Please bring good appetites, a beverage to share, and ideas for meeting topics and format.RSVP! (For non-French speaking friends, Let us Know if You’re Coming!) (LUKIYK) to Bob Cross, rcross@skootskyder.com.

Flowers on Sundays at Church

If you are interested in dedicating the flowers in the Church on Sunday mornings to a loved one or a particular remembrance, please fill out this form and indicate which day you would like to contribute the flowers and what you would like the dedication to say. The dedication will appear in our announcement sheet on the Sunday you have selected. The suggested contribution for flowers is $75, which can be paid to All Souls either electronically or by check (see the giving page on our website for more information there), and be sure to write in “flowers” in the memo line.

Please contact Maggie Cooke for any questions, dmcooke92@comcast.net.