SECOND READING – March 27th, 2012 – Meeting of the Hudson River Presbytery
Recommendation:
"The Presbytery of Hudson River overtures the 220th General Assembly (2012) to call Presbyteries and
local congregations to a time of being church together with immigrant brothers and sisters. This call
urges presbyteries and local congregations to begin active (more than setting up a committee!)
exploration in their home communities, seeking to answer how they can be church together with
immigrant communities through:
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Quarterly worship services centered on immigrant voices and experiences;
Spiritual disciplines that grow our willingness to have our worship and fellowship
transformed by the immigrant in our midst;
Prayer meetings with immigrants;
A deepening of relationship - from “Landlord/Tenant” to Spiritual Covenant - in churches
hosting immigrant fellowships.
Liturgy that shakes up and expands our vision of who is the church;
Gatherings of prayer, worship, dreaming, and planning together among churches and
presbyteries that are seeking to stand with immigrant communities; and
Developing best practices that can be shared via a discussion board, blog, or other free
social media.
Furthermore, the 220th General Assembly will provide a space for an accounting of the shared
experiences of churches engaged in ministry with immigrants by asking the Office of the General
Assembly and the Moderator to craft a week of worship that lifts up the “on the ground” stories of this
time of exploration during the 221st General Assembly (2014).
Rationale:
Theological - Fear is woven through the conversations about immigration in the media, national and
global politics, and, frequently, in our churches. We recognize that many churches are held back from
being church together with immigrants because of fear. Those fears are manifest in our faith
communities when immigration is labeled too “hot” a topic to handle, when cross-cultural worship with
immigrant communities is dismissed as too risky or too cumbersome, and when our desire to welcome is
limited by our unwillingness to question and reform long-held traditions in our worship and fellowship.
Our fear has become a dividing wall leading congregations toward avoidance rather than engagement
with their neighbors.
If we are to make the movement from fear toward love for immigrant sisters and brothers, we must take
steps in the direction of our fears. Our guide is Jesus who “…showed us the greater story of life, which
was not about conquering our fear with aggression, nor simply surviving out of our fear of punishment.
The greater story of life is not about being afraid of fear, but facing it head on. We are to approach fear
as an opening, and as an invitation to mine from it the gifts and treasures buried deep below the
surface….Buried below our fear is the seed of ministry. Beyond our fear is the hope of resurrection,
SECOND READING – March 27th, 2012 – Meeting of the Hudson River Presbytery
with new visions for us, our communities, and our nations.”i Beyond our fear is the possibility of true
relationship as one body in Christ, gathered from many nations.
To be church together with immigrant sisters and brothers is a call to risk and transformation; it is the
Scriptural call to move through our fear into God’s abundant and perfect love. The word from 1 John
4:18-21 proclaims, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects
punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. We love because God first
loved us. If anyone says, I love God, and hates a brother or sister, he is a liar, because the person who
doesn’t love a brother or sister who can be seen can’t love God, who can’t be seen. This commandment
we have from him: Those who claim to love God ought to love their brother and sister also.” And so we
journey forth to explore our call to love and to be church together with immigrant brothers and sisters.As
we take this journey, we believe people of faith respond to a civic calling as well: to transform the
current discourse on immigration from fear to friendship.
Our Perspective - This overture comes out of our lived experiences in the Hudson River Valley, an area
with a burgeoning new immigrant population from numerous countries. We are the Presbytery of
Hudson River, a collective of churches and other faith organizations who are in different stages of being
church together with immigrants. We are:
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White Plains Presbyterian Church (White Plains, NY) – a church who celebrates the diversity
of cultures in their community and church and looks forward to exploring the call of this overture
in the context of their community and immigrant neighbors;
Presbyterian Church of Mt. Kisco (Mt. Kisco, NY) - a church in Westchester County that
continues seeking light for the journey, coming together to worship God, nurture faith, pursue
social justice and share love in the name of Jesus Christ. We are a More Light and Covenant
Network Presbyterian Church, and we welcome both an Islamic school and Monte de
SionIglesiaApostolica, who share our church building;
Hitchcock Presbyterian Church (Scarsdale, NY) – a multiracial, multiethnic congregation
which has been involved in multicultural ministry for over 35 years through its “Living In
America” program, as well as hosting a Japanese-speaking congregation, seeks to be faithful to
its vision statement: “We come to be in the presence of God, so that we can be the presence of
God in the world around us;”
Stony Point Presbyterian Church (Stony Point, NY) – a church located in Northern Rockland
County, committed to having “our minds hearts, and doors open to anyone who seeks God’s
glory and love.” We have a strong historical connection with the Stony Point Conference
Center, the missionaries, staff, volunteers and guests who join us in worship and mission. We
share our sanctuary with the Spanish-speaking Rockland Emmanuel Seventh Day Adventist
Church on Saturdays. In recent years, we have begun to ask deeper questions together about
how we might live out our calling more intentionally with these many different neighbors. We
look forward to expanding that dialogue through this overture;
Cross-Cultural Network of Hudson River Presbytery - a newly formed network of church
leaders who, with the support of the Cross-Cultural Network Coordinator on Presbytery staff, are
embodying the vision of being church together across racial, ethnic, and class divides;
SECOND READING – March 27th, 2012 – Meeting of the Hudson River Presbytery
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Stony Point Center (Stony Point, NY)–a PC(USA) conference center committed to forming
community that crosses boundaries, is home to growing number of churches made up of
immigrants from around the world. As we hear the stories of those largely excluded by our
society, we are repeatedly struck by the ways in which we are enriched by this fuller expression
of the community of God, and by God's call to the church to support the immigrants in our midst;
Rural &Migrant Ministries (RMM) - a statewide, non-profit organization in covenant with
Hudson River Presbytery, which serves the rural and migrant communities through:nurturing
leadership, standing with the disenfranchised, especially farmworkers and rural workers, and
changing unjust systems and structures.
Eric H. F. Law, Finding Intimacy in a World of Fear, (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2007), 64-65.