Speaking of Your Family (Immigration and Refugee Sunday)
In another week Pentecost arrives. That’s the red letter – and red attire! – day on our liturgical calendar that marks the whirwind arrival of the Holy Spirit to the apostles, when they were filled with the miraculous ability to speak and be understood by everyone, regardless of what language each listener normally used.I
Next week Pentecost will help set the stage for the upcoming Refugee and Immigration Sunday on July 13, which St. Margaret’s and Episcopal churches across the country will mark with word, song, prayer and action. First, we need you and your family to do some talking! (Click poster to left to go to website.)
A large world map will be up on the wall in the parish house. Even before you snag a cup of coffee, please pause to stick a sparkly star on the country or countries where the first members of your American family came from. Easy. You probably know the answer to that question already. That’s Step 1.
Next to the map will be a blank poster titled “Honor Roll of Courage.” This may require a wee bit of homework for you this coming week. The Honor Roll is going to list whoever you know as the first member of any branch of your family tree to come to the U.S. This could be someone as recently arrived as one of your parents or grandparents, or any or several “great-great-greats” you know about from your personal geneology sleuthing. You aren’t expected to jump onto Ancestry.com for this; hopefully you and/or someone nearby knows of at least one candidate for this honor. You’ll be able to add the country they came from, the approximate year or decade they came, and the reason why, if known. This is Step 2 of Pentecost coffee hour!
The final Step 3 is again easy and sheer fun. You may want to bring an advance list, however. Think of those colorful chains made from strips of construction paper that you or maybe your kids made back in the day. Let’s do it again! Between June 8 and July 13, we’ll gradually stretch a paper chain from our world map across the room to . . . the first post? The kitchen wall? All the way to the front? We’ll see! Each link will have the name of someone in your family who came from across the border or across the sea. We mean your whole family, by marriage or adoption. Your brother-in-law from Denmark, your niece’s husband from Argentina, the baby your aunt adopted from China, your cousin’s in-laws who decided to move here from Canada. Hopefully you’ll have many people for links on our chain. And please add others born outside the U.S. and now here who had a significant impact on your life – a teacher or college instructor, a home health aide who made all the difference caring for your parent, a colleague at work, someone who cared for you after school while your mother was working, a surgeon who mended your bad back, a migrant farmworker who became a friend, etc. Each can be a link you add.
Special note! We have several in the parish who are themselves “immigrants”! Gold strips are reserved for them to sign as special sparkling links on the paper chain.
This all starts next Sunday, and can be added to week by week, through July 13.
Pat Griffith
