All Our Voices, All Our Visions
Building bridges between our divisions,
I reach out to you, will you reach out to me?
With all of our voices and all of our visions,
friends, we could make such sweet harmony.
175 voices sang in the round: building bridges – I reach out to you – between our divisions – will you reach out to me? Huddled between the bike path and decommissioned railroad tracks, our interfaith group stood under the shadow of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on Wednesday afternoon. The building was fortified with plywood covering its windows. Those gathered were fortified with a guitar, speaker, microphone, and song lyrics.
The Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition reported detentions up nine times from the previous month. In response, Migra watch trainings are also on the rise, with over 1,000 joining the most recent training to get connected to the ICE Watch rapid response network.
In the midst of this, faith communities have felt compelled to gather our bodies and our voices in witness of the harmful actions taking place in our communities. We want trainings, yes, practical on-the-ground work, absolutely, but we are also hungry to be a people of faith together, a moral voice to witness and speak against the dehumanization of our neighbors.
We came together the best way we know how- in ritual and worship. The Neighbor-to-Neighbor Interfaith ICE Witness was led by downtown-area faith communities: Rev. Alison of First Unitarian, Rabbi Benjamin from Havruah Shalom, and myself from First Church. We were convened by Together Lab at the prompting of Dana Buhl, also from First Unitarian.
Neighboring faith communities stood shoulder to shoulder as we sang, prayed, named our thanksgivings, and shared our laments. We recognized the death-dealing actions that have terrorized our community and separated families. As neighbors, we recommitted ourselves to every neighbor: especially the sojourners among us.
During our time together, we placed little stones (pebbles, really) as markers of our witness. In the Gospel according to Luke, when the witness of Truth and lovingkindness was tamped down, censored, or attacked, it was said that even if our truth telling could not be heard, even when our voices were silenced, even when peace could not be proclaimed, that the very stones would cry out in witness. So we placed our stones: in memory, honor, commitment, and solidarity, so that when we are not present at the ICE facility, even the very stones will cry out in witness.
It was heartening to see First Church well represented in the crowd of folks singing our way into a more just, more compassionate world. One First Church member, Bob, reflected that “showing up is always good, but I was surprised at how nurtured I felt by the gathered community.”
First Church’s presence at the Witness is a testament to our work with our strategic initiatives, core values, and vision. With little lead time and need for continued communication in case details changed, we utilized the First Church Advocacy list to invite our congregation to participate.
This email list was created by First Church laity as a practical step to:
live out our core value of Justice,
engage our strategic initiative to build a more just Portland by being a voice in the city,
and work toward our vision to connect with our neighbors to build a more just world.
Through this new system, Bob and many others were able to join their voices in moral witness and be nurtured in the process. A huge thank you to all who operate that communication channel for emergent advocacy action! If you would like to be added to this email list, head to Church Center: https://fumcpdx.churchcenter.com/groups/unique/fumc-advocates
This is not the first, nor the last opportunity we’ll have to be advocates for our neighbors.
With our interfaith witness alone, we have committed to not only speaking our moral, public witness this week, but every 1st and 3rd Wednesday for the coming months, each witness led by a different neighborhood of faith communities and attended by people of faith from all neighborhoods. The next Witness at the ICE facility will be led by our interfaith siblings from East County on December 17th at 2pm.
It was so enriching and encouraging to be together, strengthened for our shared work ahead. Then, after everyone had dispersed and the worship leaders had circled for debrief, the immigration bus that travels to the Tacoma detention center left the facility. It was full.
We stood in silence, our hearts traveling down the road with our immigrant neighbors.
For each faith community present, it is a season of light amidst darkness. For those in the Christian faith, we know that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. May it be so.
Building bridges,
Pastor Karyn