Diocesan Churches Invited to Celebrate Immigration & Refugee Ministries Sunday on June 19, 2022

Father’s Day is Sunday, June 19, 2022, and the Rt. Revs. David Reed and Rayford High are inviting each church in the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas to dedicate a special Father’s Day offering in support of the diocese’s Immigration and Refugee Ministries efforts. Consider honoring fathers, and other special men in your lives, by supporting this important work of responding faithfully to the needs of our siblings-in-Christ.

Bishop Rayford High shares, “During this Easter Season, the Sunday's readings from the Acts of the Apostles have offered a clear model for Christian ministry. The Early Church welcomed the poor, marginalized, neglected, homeless children of God into their community. The fellowship was inclusive of all sorts and conditions of women, men and children. Can we do anything less today?”

“Bishop Reed and I invite you to join our brothers and sisters in the Diocese of West Texas to celebrate Father's Day on Sunday, June 19 in conjunction with World Refugee Day on Monday, June 20. Each of us can rejoice through prayers, service and financial support. We must stand with and act on behalf of God’s precious souls, immigrants from many different countries, who enter the United States legally to make a new life among us. By our Lord Jesus Christ's grace, we can and we must.”

Diocesan Immigration & Refugee Ministries provides day-time welcoming services at the Plaza de Paz Respite Center in San Antonio, partners with local border ministries and law enforcement agencies throughout the diocese, and supports organizations serving refugees in our communities, including Episcopal Migration Ministries’ refugee resettlement efforts with families from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and many other countries.

Reopened in March 2022, Plaza de Paz provides individuals and families with meals, assistance with travel arrangements, and more. All people served at the center are involved in the formal, asylum-seeking process due to persecution, war, or violence in their home countries and arrive with limited personal items and only the clothes worn throughout their time with Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The opportunity to put on clean clothes after a long journey is profoundly restorative.

There are three ways to give to the Immigration & Refugee Ministries Father's Day Offering:

• Online, at dwtx.org/give. Click on Immigration Ministries and select the Father's Day Offering sub-fund.
• Text the word "Father" to 210-796-6805.
• Mail a check, made out to the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, to P.O. Box 6885, San Antonio, TX 78209, with "Father's Day Offering" on the memo line.

If you have questions or need more information about volunteer opportunities, please contact Flor Saldivar, Director of Immigration and Refugee Ministries. Thank you for considering this offering. Together, we can support asylum seekers, refugees, and law enforcement within our Diocese.

Contact the Communications Office, at communications@dwtx.org, to request a shareable social media graphic to help spread the word leading up to Father’s Day or another Immigration & Refugee Ministries Sunday chosen by your congregation.