Episcopal leadership conference focuses on churches’ response to the global refugee crisis

[Episcopal News Service – Geneva, Switzerland] As Western governments continue cuts to foreign aid and humanitarian assistance, and as the United States dismantles its federal refugee resettlement program and eliminates the U.S. Agency for International Development, nongovernmental organizations and religious institutions, including The Episcopal Church, may need to step up their efforts to address the global refugee crisis.

With this in mind, the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe focused its annual leadership training over the weekend on the theme, “The Refugee Crisis: What we can do as parishes, missions and individuals.”

Worldwide, there are an estimated 42.7 million refugees, 73.5 million people internally displaced within their own countries, and 8.4 million asylum-seekers, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ 2024 figures.

Across the convocation, which in Western Europe includes parishes and missions in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, congregations are already serving refugees through its refugee grant program. The conference aimed to share existing work and establish a framework, including practical guidelines, to identify existing needs and strategize and collaborate on providing services to meet those needs.

“One of our goals is to raise awareness, not only of the refugee situation, but what we are doing within the convocation, what tools we have to help congregations discern what it is that they can or want to do and what the needs of their city are,” Janet Day-Strehlow, who chairs the convocation’s European Institute for Christian Studies, which organized the conference, told Episcopal News Service.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Geneva hosted some 18 attendees at the Sept. 19-20 conference, which included presentations, discussions and fellowship. Its parish-based Refugee Welcome Center began in 2022 in response to an influx of mostly women and children fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; in 2024, it assisted 1,000 refugees, the majority Ukrainian.

The center’s budget increased from $15,000 to $150,000 in three years; it receives support through the convocation’s grant program, which is supported by Episcopal Relief & Development, Capital Group and private donations.

The welcome center offers French language classes that complement those offered by local social service providers. It also sponsors cultural events, hosts yoga and other movement classes, music lessons, English classes and English-immersion camps for children, the Rev. Michael Rusk, rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, told attendees during his presentation.

The center sought to partner with others so as not to duplicate but rather fill the gaps in needs and services. It is intended to respond to the Baptismal Covenant’s call to respect the dignity of every human being.

“That’s what we’re called to live out, not just on a Sunday, but throughout the week,” Rusk told ENS. Through expressing that covenant, the church has created “a community which has many people of different nationalities, and which includes refugees and migrants who received a warm welcome.”

As of 2024, the convocation, in partnership with Episcopal Relief & Development, has supported over 40,000 refugees in 11 countries with essentials, health care, legal aid, language classes and employment assistance, said Giulia Bonoldi, managing director of the Rome, Italy-based Joel Nafuma Refugee Center and the convocation’s chief welcoming officer for refugees and migrants.

Modeling Emmanuel’s approach, she said during her presentation, churches interested in assisting refugees and migrants first need to understand what social and cultural services are already available. There is no need to replicate or re-invent services, she said. Churches need to work alongside community partners and add value.

“This is a time in which the church has an important opportunity to change the way it perceives itself, to do good work and encourage more awareness [of the crisis],” Bonoldi said during a discussion following Rusk’s presentation.

Kim Powell, senior warden at the American Cathedral in Paris, and Sierra McCullough, co-chair for mission, attended the conference because even though they’re already providing sneakers and socks to young refugees, they’ve not yet applied for a grant from the convocation and they’re interested in expanding their partnerships in Paris to create arts programs for refugees, they said.

In her presentation, the Rev. Sarah Shipman, director of the church’s Episcopal Migration Ministries, spoke about EMM and how, over its 40-year history, it helped welcome and resettle over 110,000 people from some 87 countries. Along with its partners, EMM worked to find housing for refugees, provide legal and employment assistance, language and cultural orientation classes, assistance enrolling children in school, and other services.

EMM had been one of 10 nongovernmental agencies, many of them associated with religious denominations, that facilitated refugee resettlement through the federal program created in 1980. Refugees traditionally have been among the most thoroughly vetted of all immigrants and often waited for years overseas for their opportunity to start new lives in the United States. After the Trump administration issued an executive order in January suspending the program, EMM announced plans to wind down its core resettlement operations. The federal contract officially ends on Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Through its newly created public witness division, EMM is now part of a broader effort, including the church’s Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations and others, to find ways to continue to assist refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants. And EMM continues to serve migrants through diocesan partnerships, collaboration with other Anglican provinces worldwide and local outreach to refugees who continue to build lives in U.S. communities.

“Whether you’re a Christian or Jewish or Muslim or you have no faith at all, we all feel and experience empathy, and we all have a responsibility in our community to look out for and protect one another,” Shipman told ENS.

Shipman first stopped in Rome to learn about the work of the JNRC; as EMM shifts its focus from resettling refugees in the United States to supporting ministries serving refugees and migrants more broadly, the center based at St. Paul’s Within the Walls serves as a potential model.

Whereas historically, refugees arriving in the United States arrived with a well-established legal process, those arriving in Italy must apply for asylum upon arrival.

“People risk their lives because they have no path to come legally,” Bonoldi said.

The center operates a day shelter and provides food, clothing, Italian- and English-language classes, legal and job assistance, and other services to an average of 150 refugees on weekdays. It does so with a small staff, interns and volunteers, and an annual budget under $400,000.

Max Niedzwiecki, an anthropologist who serves on The Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on World Mission and who has worked closely with EMM on developing its Rainbow Initiative Program, serving LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum-seekers, talked about refugee rights and the European context.

Following the formation in 1945 of the United Nations and the end of World War II, the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol defined the term “refugee,” outlined their rights and provided a framework for their treatment and protection.

Niedzwiecki also emphasized that the way people talk about refugees, particularly in an increasingly polarized world, can influence their rights. And he reminded those present that refugees are more than their legal status.

“Sometimes when we talk about migrants, there is an implication that the people who are doing the talking are separate from them, while we know that our communities include migrants,” he later told ENS.

“In addition, we might focus only on migrants’ struggles, while we know that they are full human beings with energy, skills and love to share. Their presence is a blessing, and they deserve gratitude, as well as empathy. When we neglect to voice our gratitude, admiration and solidarity with migrants in our words and in our prayers, we run the risk of reinforcing harmful stereotypes in our own hearts, and in the minds of people who are listening.”

On Sept. 22, Bonoldi, Day-Strehlow and Shipman joined the Rt. Rev. Mark Edington, bishop of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, for a meeting with a UNHCR official at its Geneva headquarters.

-Lynette Wilson is a reporter and managing editor of Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at lwilson@episcopalchurch.org.