“Border to Border” Pilgrimage and Immigration Immersion Resources

The “Border to Border” Pilgrimage will explore issues on our southern border (Mexico) and connect to our lives on the northern border (Canada). All welcome! Watch a video describing our plans here. Due to COVID-19 our plans are currently on hold. However, we will be continuing to gather in zoom meetings.

Sin Fronteras/Without Border Book Reading Group

Starts October 28

The US-Mexican border es una herida abierta [an open wound] where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds. And before a scab forms it hemorrhages again, the lifeblood of two worlds merging to form a third country—a border culture. Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them.” (Gloria E. Anzaldua)

“Mary McClintock Fulkerson once described theology as a “response to a wound.”  (Nancy Pineda-Madrid)

Central to our baptismal identity is the unending task to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being (LOC, 225; BCP, 305).

Sin Fronteras/Without Borders is a community and space dedicated to reading, reflecting, praying, and exploring practices that will foster a more informed understanding of the history, present realities, and humanitarian needs of migrants on the US/Mexico border.

Sin Fonteras is also a partnership across diocesan communities and it is our hope to foster communal learning, shared practices for congregational engagement and transformation around border concerns and needs, and thoughtful activism that will inform and educate local congregations, legislators, and the wider Episcopal Church.

Over the course of six-weeks we will, read, reflect, and pray for the humanitarian crisis unfolding on the US/Mexico border. Contact Padre David david@azdiocese.org to register!

Our primary text will be Miguel de la Torre’s book, The Immigration Crisis:Towards an Ethics of Place.

Co-leaders:

• Padre David Ulloa Chavez, Missioner for Border Ministries, Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. Contact Padre David david@azdiocese.org to register!
• Rev. Mike Wallens, Co-Chair of Rio Grande Borderland Ministries, Vicar at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Marfa, TX.; Priest-in-charge, St. James Episcopal, Alpine, TX.

Reading Schedule:

• Oct. 28 Week One: The New Colossus, Preface, Introduction
  • Tentative Guest: Rushad Thomas, TEC Policy Advisor, Office of the Presiding Bishop.
• Nov. 11 Week Two: Chapter 1
• Nov. 25 Week Three: Chapters 2&3
• Dec. 9 Week Four: Chapters 4&5
• Jan 6 Week Five: Chapters 6&7
• Jan 20 Week Six: Chapter 7 and Conclusion
• Feb 3 Debrief and planning ahead.

On the horizon: Undoing Border Imperialism, by Harsha Walia.  “Border imperialism depicts the processes by which the violences and precarities of displacement and migration are structurally created as well as maintained” (Intro. P. 5).

Spanish for Ministry Course

Registration is closed for our online, program-year “Spanish for Ministry course.”  The Whitaker Institute offers this course with teacher Mechelle Sieglitz, member at St. George’s Episcopal Church (Milford) and co-facilitated by Silvia Huth, member at Holy Cross Episcopal Church (Novi).  This practical course will give you familiarity with Spanish language that can lead to ministerial opportunities for your nearby Spanish speaking community. Each class includes conversational speaking practice and liturgical language practice. By the end of the course, participants will learn enough Spanish to converse and also to participate in Spanish Morning Prayer service.

Deadline to register passed.

Twenty class sessions, every other week beginning September 21 through June 14.  PLUS! Optional Spanish-Table gatherings will be offered with classmates between class times.

Classes will be held online by zoom, from 7pm to 8:30pm.  Tuition is $500 for the whole course ($25 per class session) and scholarships are available. Limit to 20 people per class.

For More Information, contact Mechelle Sieglitz at mechelle.sieglitz@gmail.com

• Spanish for Ministry is a practical course to gain familiarity with the language and ministerial opportunities with the local Spanish speaking community. By the end of this course, you will have learned the equivalent of a Spanish I course in a university class, be able to participate in a conversation in Spanish, and participate in Morning Prayer in Spanish.
• Participants will need to purchase their own books here (or wherever this book is sold).
• Our teacher, Mechelle Sieglitz, grew up speaking Spanish in her home state of Florida, and is a certified K-12 Spanish teacher with five years’ experience in the classroom. She received her Master of Arts in Teaching from Oakland University in 2014. She is a member of St George’s Episcopal Church in Milford.

Here are the dates:

Class Dates

Session 1 September 21

Session 2 October 5

Session 3 October 19

Session 4 November 2

Session 5 November 16

Session 6 November 30

Session 7 December 14

Session 8 January 4

Session 9 January 18

Session 10 Feb 1

Session 11 February 15

Session 12 March 1

Session 13 March 15

Session 14 March 29

Session 15 April 12

Session 16 April 26

Session 17 May 3

Session 18 May 17

Session 19 May 31

Session 20 June 14