[Episcopal News Service] More than half of all living bishops in The Episcopal Church added their names to a “message to our fellow Americans” expressing “grief, righteous anger and steadfast hope” in response to the aggressive federal immigration enforcement operations that have left two U.S. citizens in Minnesota dead.
The 154 bishops who signed the lengthy message are a diverse mix of diocesan bishops, suffragans and retirees from all regions of the United States and the church’s Latin American dioceses, and they represent the church’s broad racial, ethnic and theological spectrum. Many of the bishops also appeared on camera to read aloud the written message for a video released Jan. 31.
The message singles out by name Renee Good and Alex Pretti as fatal victims of “state-sanctioned violence” on Minneapolis streets last month, while lamenting and challenging ongoing government policies that threaten the dignity of fellow human beings in communities across the country.
“We call on Americans to trust their moral compass — and to question rhetoric that trades in fear rather than the truth. As Episcopalians, our moral compass is rooted firmly in the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” the bishops said. “We cannot presume to speak for everyone or prescribe only one way to respond. For our part, we can only do as Jesus’ teaching shows us.”
The joint statement comes a week after Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe released a letter to The Episcopal Church that addressed these issues in more general terms while assuring Episcopalians that “death and despair do not have the last word.”
And while Rowe’s letter urged Episcopalians to “commit ourselves to paying whatever price our witness requires of us,” the 154 bishops responded in their message in more specific terms with a call to action, including demands that the Trump administration change its policies to emphasize restraint, transparency and democratic principles.
“We urge the immediate suspension of ICE and Border Patrol operations in Minnesota and in any community where enforcement has eroded public trust,” the bishops said. “We also call for transparent, independent investigations of the people killed — investigations centered on truth, not politics. … We call on the elected officials of our nation to remember the values that we share, including the rule of law.”
The bishops also committed themselves to “keep showing up — to pray, to speak, and to stand with every person working to make our communities just, safe, and whole.”
“The question before us is simple and urgent: Whose dignity matters? Our faith gives a clear answer: everyone’s,” the bishops said. “Safety built on fear is an illusion. True safety comes when we replace fear with compassion, violence with justice, and unchecked power with accountability. That’s the vision our faith calls us to live out — and the promise our country is meant to uphold.”
Maryland Bishop Carrie Schofield-Broadbent, one of a smaller group of bishops who initiated the discussions that led to the message, told Episcopal News Service that she and others “felt we really were in a moment” where it was important to “speak with a moral voice based in our Christian faith.”
The message is not an official communication of the House of Bishops, Schofield-Broadbent said, though the bishops who signed it felt compelled to speak collectively now rather than waiting for the next formal meeting of the House of Bishops in March.
She added that all Episcopalians should feel empowered to pray, discern and act as their faith calls them.
“I’m hoping all of us will use our voice to speak up for gospel values and truth in this time,” she said.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.