Pasadena Church Joins Interfaith, Community Leaders in Declaring Support for Sanctuary Movement

A representative from Pasadena’s All Saints Church joined Los Angeles-based interfaith and community leaders at a press conference at The Episcopal Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Echo Park Wednesday morning to announce the Church’s support the “Sanctuary” movement for undocumented persons living in the United States.

“The message All Saints has to not only the Pasadena, but the wider Southern California community, is we are going to continue to be a beacon of love, justice and compassion as we enter this new year with a lot of uncertainty about public policy that’s pending that indicates a great marginalization of our immigrant communities and others as well,” said Reverend Susan Russell of All Saints Church Pasadena.

The press conference was held as a followup to the declaration by The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in early December that it would be a “Sanctuary Diocese.”

Church officials said the Diocese commits itself to “holy resistance” in the face of what it referred to in a press release as hateful and discriminatory plans by the new Trump administration to deport millions of undocumented persons, to eliminate programs like DAPA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and other programs providing relief and protection for hundreds of thousands of our immigrant community.

“I was proud of our diocese when we voted unanimously to become a sanctuary diocese — a place where could offer comfort and take away the fear of the people we serve,” said Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno.

“It is important that we care for people who fear for their safety,” Bruno added. “It’s important that we celebrate immigrant people so that we can go forward and provide the care that they need. We want to stand up be counted and transform this world into what it should be. I call upon all the people of Los Angeles to band together.”

The Wednesday press conference featured members from The Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NLDON), Jovenes, Inc., the Latino/Latina Roundtable, the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and others.

“Taking strong stands for human rights that the Sanctuary Movement represents is nothing new for All Saints Church or the Diocese of Los Angeles,” said All Saints Rector Mike Kinman. “But it is when those rights come under direct attack that it becomes literally a life or death matter for that stand to be made unequivocally clear.”

All Saints issued a statement which read in part, “we will stand together and proclaim that Los Angeles will be a place of sanctuary for all. We will demand that our elected officials and that our communities not give in to the new administration’s criminalization of the immigrant family or marginalization of any member of the human family.”

Pablo Alvarado, Director of Pasadena based National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), was in attendance to show support for the Sanctuary movement.

“We’re working in Pasadena to turn that city into an actual Sanctuary city and we’re happy to have churches from Pasadena participating in this movement as well. We’re asking the faith based communities to come and extend the protection that they have for their members to these workers, to vulnerable communities” said Alvarado.

“So we’re asking to open synagogues, to open churches and any house of worship for people who are going to be persecuted for being undocumented people.”

NDLON works to fosters safer, more humane environments for day laborers, both men and women, to earn a living, contribute to society, and integrate into the community.

The press conference featured speakers that included Rev. Linda Culbertson, General Presbyter, Presbytery of the Pacific; Bishop Guy Erwin, the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA); and Rabbi Jonathan Klein, Executive Director of the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.

“Our solidarity is not limited to members of the immigrant community, but to our muslim brothers and sisters, to LGBT people, to women who feel threatened—to a whole broad constituency that we are there to stand in solidarity with,” said Russell.