UPDATE again: Video message from Bishop Kirk Smith
UPDATE: list of Bishops attending below.
About 40 bishops and spouses are participating in the trip to the border of Mexico and Arizona before the House of Bishops meeting. They are going to learn more about the people and places affected by US immigration laws and the lack of a coherent policy to address the needs of workers and employers.
The congregations of St. John’s, Bisbee and St. Stephen’s, Douglas Arizona are hosting the event along with the Diocese of Arizona and the bishop.
Pat McCaughan, ENS, gives an overview of the House of Bishops’ trip and their meeting:
Bishop Kirk Smith of Arizona said that he is pleased that the House of Bishops has come to Arizona “to experience first hand the immigration crisis by visiting the border, talking with people involved on both sides of the issue, and by praying with those most affected. It will be a time to put human faces on justice issues.”
….
On Sept. 16, bishops may join for dinner participants in the inaugural gathering of the Coalition of Episcopal Latinos, meeting Sept. 15-18 at the Franciscan Retreat Center in nearby Scottsdale.
Local immigration activists and Hispanic congregational leaders also will address the bishops. Additional scheduled speakers include: Anne Rudig, director of communications for the Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Canon Carmen B. Guerrero, Arizona diocesan canon for peace and justice and multicultural ministry, and pastor of the Latino congregation at Trinity Cathedral.
As the bishops have done since September 2007, the meeting is closed to visitors and the press. They will make reports each day and have a press conference by telephone at the end of the meeting. Is this secrecy necessary? Some bishops may make comments on their blogs. Let us know if your bishop is blogging.
Bishop Carol Gallagher tells her experience the first day of the trip:
I got up very early this morning to leave home and fly across the country to the Mexican border. A group of Bishops, as the guests of the Diocese of Arizona are here in order to learn about the issues of immigration and migration. We are here to open our hearts and minds to the people who live on the border in this heightened time of distrust and paranoia. They told us today [many] have died in the desert trying to cross the border since the wall has gone up and those are the bodies they have counted. Some people are missing and unaccounted for. Lives are daily hanging in the balance everyday and many will not be here in many days. They are people who have no choices left.
Bishop Brian Prior, MN blogs on the meeting here.
Arizona video is here
Photos are here.
Can you spot your bishop?
The Rt. Rev’ds Kirk Smith, Porter Taylor, Bob Moore, Otis Charles, Mark Beckwith, J Michael Garrison, David Benson Reed, Jeff Lee, Jim Curry, Clifton Daniels, Mary Glasspool, Don Johnson, Ed Leidel, Alan Scarfe, Prince Singh, Dean Wolfe, Brian Thom, James Mathes, Ian Douglas, Laurence Provenzano, Nedi Rivera, Victor Scantlebury, Gladstone Adams, Scott Hayashi, Mark Sisk; Gayle Harris, Carol Gallagher and the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori.
If you know of others, please add them in the comments.
Video from ENS