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The Task Force on Immigrant and Refugee Needs
(The Task Force report is available in pdf format click here. An acrobat reader
is required.)
The Task Force on Immigrant and Refugee Needs (TIRN) was created by convention in 2001 to explore the opportunities
for ministry with and critical issues facing refugees and immigrants within our diocese.
The task force met six times during 2001, began the process of learning about the many pressing issues facing refugees
and immigrants, and began to brainstorm about possible opportunities for ministry within the congregations of our
diocese. As part of becoming educated, members of the task force met with Richard Parkins, director of Migration
Ministries for the national church, with a representative from the Seamen's Church Institute, and with a representative
of IRATE, a Roman Catholic group which organizes visits to detainees at the Elizabeth Detention Center and which
also organizes demonstrations at this Center to protest poor conditions and treatment of the detainees.
In addition, a visit to this Center sponsored by TIRN is scheduled for noon on January 13, 2002. All who wish may
visit a detainee to learn firsthand about the reasons these political asylees flee to the United States and how
they are treated as asylees.
Educated and inspired by the work of the task force and by learnings from two of its members and members of St.
Bartholomew's-Ho-Ho-Kus who have experience with this kind of ministry, St. Luke's, Haworth adopted a refugee this
past September. Her resettlement is underway.
Members of the task force identified numerous areas in which ministry is badly needed by refugees and immigrants
within our diocese. The following list, which is not exhaustive, captures some of the major needs as identified
by the task force members:
- legal counsel
- emotional and spiritual support
- legislative advocacy
- ESL training
- congregational sponsorship of refugees
- education of members of the diocese about issues facing refugees and immigrants
- job training
- guidance on how to make use of US social service systems
- transitional housing for detainees recently released
TIRN learned also of several ministry initiatives that hold potential promise for this diocese. Some dioceses have
active programs in resettling refugees. Other dioceses have converted unused or underused urban churches or rectories
into one-stop service centers to provide a wide range of services for immigrants and refugees. There are many pressing
needs. A well-organized response is clearly warranted.
Task force members believe that grant funds would probably be readily available from several sources for such ministries,
and believes that initial funding could be sought to pay the part-time salary of a staff-person responsible for
creating ongoing ministries and programming for refugees and immigrants in the diocese.
Task force members were never formally appointed. The following persons played some role in the work accomplished
this past year: Roberta Nobleman, Janet Beddoe, Geoff Curtiss, Carr Holland, Louie Crew, Jack Stanton, Marge Christie,
Elizabeth Kaeton, Martha Gardner, Maggie Gat, Fletcher Harper. This list is not exhaustive; the convener apologizes
for having misplaced the names of at least one person who attended a task force meeting.
The members of the task force thank convention for authorizing its work and requests that any members of the diocese
with an interest in this area of ministry contact the Rev. Fletcher Harper, task force convener, at 201-384-0653.
The Task Force on Immigrant and Refugee Needs will be considering how best to move forward in the coming months.
Respectfully submitted,
The Rev. Fletcher Harper, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Haworth NJ
Convener, Task Force on Immigrant and Refugee Needs
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