Sarah Lawton

“As we absorb the news that federal agents have arrived in the Bay Area to carry out a major immigration action, I want to speak directly to our community. When fear moves through our streets, the Church must move with something stronger. We stand with the vulnerable because it is the way of Jesus”⚓️

As we prepare for a large deployment of ICE agents here in our beautiful San Francisco Bay Area, here is a message of solidarity from our Episcopal bishop of this area, Austin Rios ⚓️

mailchi.mp/diocal/lette...

ever or never? 🧐😉

Absolutely. I practically live online, fwiw. Online hearings allow for wider access; I support them for that. But we should also make time and space for appointed members of leg committees to meet in person, together. It’s a different vibe, where bishop and deputies, including lay, meet as equals.

And this is best done in person, with bishops (who didn’t always show up to the zoom calls) and deputies together in the room. As far as I know, most dioceses do pay to send deputies to be in person.

Believe it or not, I’m in favor of efficiencies in our process! And I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Relational conversation is at the heart of synodality, and that is best done in person, especially for hard convos, like around abortion, or responding to the Charleston murders

What they really do, over time, is form our work in advocacy. We get used to saying that this is our church’s position, for example, in supporting immigrant rights or LGBTQ rights. They form the basis of the advocacy alerts that our church puts out; we repeat the words at local protests and events.

I want be sure there is sufficient time for deputies and bishops to meet together *in person* to discuss the most important and hardest issues. Traditionally this has been done in manageably sized leg committees. This is where the perspectives of lay voices have been heard: synodality in action. ⚓️

TO REPORT ICE ACTIVITY CALL (415) 200-1548 WHEN REPORTING ICE ACTIVITY - remember to: BE THE PRIMARY WITNESS we want to avoid confusion or unfounded rumors PROVIDE SPECIFIC LOCATION please provide a specific address or cross streets TAKE A PICTURE OF ICE AND TEXT (415) 200-1548 IDENTIFY BEHAVIOR OF ICE What are they doing? arresting, interrogating. patrolling DESCRIBE WHAT ICE OFFICERS ARE WEARING plain clothes, uniforms, vests with police in fronf SF IMMIGRANT LEGAL & EDUCATION NETWORK RAPID RESPONSE NETWORK

This rapid response guide for reporting ICE is specific to San Francisco. For the other counties in the bay area, the second post on this thread links to a list of hotlines and resources.

To read more: sfilen.org/resources/sf...

Threads post from julieceye At my local Home Depot today in Evanston, IL. They abducted 5 people in my immediate area.

For folks asking if they've made it *inside* a Home Depot yet as the business has clearly just continued letting agents do whatever they want in their lots, the answer is yes. This is from yesterday in Evanston.

A long history

Another reason why we should just provide healthy, warm school lunches universally. There are economies of scale and it avoids the stigma of applying for and being the school lunch kid. We raise school achievement when we feed the kids!

Yep

This is just after a planned maintenance outage last night on our block from 10pm to 3am— the fourth such outage in just a few months. Not happy tonight

Important subtext: Hard to oversell how rare this precise Christian coalition is, and how unusually defiant this letter they're signing is.

After clergy arrests, religious pushback to ICE expands in Chicago (RNS) — More than 210 mostly Chicago-area clergy, representing a range of liberal and conservative traditions, have signed a letter criticizing ICE titled ‘Jesus is Being Tear Gassed at Broadview.’

The letter is signed by an unusually broad array of Christian clergy, progressive and conservative, including the Right Reverend Paula Clark, Episcopal Bishop of Chicago. ⚓️

religionnews.com/2025/10/21/a...

Statement of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, on Standing with Immigrants Oct. 21, 2025 My dear brothers and sisters, today I speak to you as your shepherd, but also as a fellow pilgrim who shares the pain of many of our immigrant communities. Families are being torn apart. Children are left in fear, and communities are shaken by immigration raids and detentions. These actions wound the soul of our city. Let me be clear. The Church stands with migrants. We stand with a mother who crosses borders to feed her children. We stand with the father who labors in silence to build a better future. We stand with the young person who dreams of safety and a better future. Our parishes and schools will not turn away those who seek comfort, and we will not be silent when dignity is denied in the enforcement of the law, it is essential that we respect the dignity of every human being. Now I want to say something directly to those immigrants without documents. Most of you have been here for years. You have worked hard. You have raised families. You have contributed to this nation. You have earned our respect. As the Archbishop of Chicago, I will insist that you be treated with dignity. Americans should not forget that we all come from immigrant families. You are our brothers and sisters. We stand with you. God bless you all.

NEW: Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, has issued a new statement declaring that Chicago "communities are shaken by immigration raids and detentions. These actions wound the soul of our city. Let me be clear. The Church stands with migrants."

Not exactly an un-wordy bunch! Type your thoughts, I guess? Like we do in the chat when our audio drops out of zoom?

Episcopalians among millions joining nonviolent ‘No Kings’ marches [Episcopal News Service] Episcopal clergy and laity were among the nearly 7 million people who participated Oct. 18 in nation- and worldwide nonviolent “No Kings” marches in opposition to authorita…

episcopalnewsservice.org/2025/10/20/e...

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The Episcopal Church is clear: Christian Nationalism is a sin and also an urgent danger in our country. See this article on the report from our House of Bishops’ theology committee on Christian Nationalism:

episcopalnewsservice.org/pressrelease...

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Also that Canon Sierra is convening the group to oversee this work, with action steps and evaluations and support. On the parish level, we’re not on our own! As mission congregations we are already feeling the shift.

I arrived in the parish in my 20s when the pandemic was still raging. We GenXers came of age then. One of my dearest friends was diagnosed in 1991; he was so young. He is a long-term survivor, thankfully! I have tried to explain that time to my kids, who were born in SF in the late 1990s ….

Yes, the beforetimes, and the after, when everything changed. On the other side (somewhat), I remember clearly when in January 1996 two of our members were discussing funeral plans, but got access to compassionate use of the triple cocktail-and didn’t die. The death faucet turned down to a trickle.

Indeed, we (John the Evangelist) were part of a quintet of churches in SF at the epicenter of AIDS in the 80s and 90s. We all lost a significant number of parishioners. At one point St. John’s was doing multiple requiem masses a month. It changed us all. But we’re still scruffy, 30 years on :)

I’m a longtime member of the nearest neighboring church. Since we are so close to the real-deal Anglo-Catholic church, people have been heard to say we at St. John’s are “Birkenstock Anglo-Catholics.” We’re known for our neighborhood outreach & social justice work. And Advent is a lovely neighbor!

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well … okay, fair enough 😂. I was raised in a little gay Anglo-Catholic parish in a poor urban neighborhood; now I’m senior warden in another. Not gay, but a fellow traveler; this is my people. Still, we hold our sacraments in high regard but not as more important than loving, serving our neighbors

Well, this specific protest was organized with help from the deacon of the Church of the Advent of Christ the King. Who is a woman. Times change!

That certainly tracks! Not saying we don’t have it here, especially in Anglo-Catholic (maybe especially gay Anglo-Catholic) circles, but here we are more Pacific Rim. I’m fairly Anglo-Catholic myself, but more of the high-mass slum-church industrial-action model than pre-dinner sherry variety 😉

Well, fwiw some people had signs saying “No Kings but Christ.” And while there’s a strain of holdover Anglophilia in the Episcopal Church we are increasingly a diverse and very American church (in the mass in Grace Cathedral yesterday we prayed in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Mandarin, and Tongan).