Upcoming Event- Prayer Vigil for Immigrants.

For Immediate Release: (An event not sponsored by Stop the Raids, Danbury. But important, none the less, and which has our full support).

A Vigil led by members of the Interfaith Community, and Clergy will be held on 8/12 at 2 pm. Location to be confirmed.

Reverend Gail-Keeney Mulligan, of St Johns Episcopal Church has circulated this letter to members of the Clergy:

DEAR CLERGY BROTHERS AND SISTERS:

Your help is deeply needed in attendance and Participation in an upcoming vigil on the Green in Danbury for the healing needed in our nation, our state, and our community around issues of immigration.

Undocumented Immigrants are being criminalized in our state, and raids are taking
place in homes and at work. Men and women are being jailed and separated from their children, and shipped to places where they are held, and cannot be found by family and friends.

Many of the undocumented immigrants have come to this country out of desperation,
and have experienced extreme exploitation. Thousands have been trafficked with promises of good jobs, hope for their families left behind, and hope for a better life. Instead they have been forced into slave labor. Into being workers with no rights, forced into prostitution. And they are also living in constant fear of arrest, and deportation.

Racism has grown with the focus of undocumented workers with words like 'criminal' and 'alien', especially towards those who are Latino. It is time that the faith community stood up and spoke up for God's Children and the human rights of every individual.

We are calling for a Prayer Vigil for a just way foward for everyone, a way that
respects the dignity of every human being. We are calling for a vigil that aknowledges the victimization of many undocumented workers in order for many of us to consume more for less, while they struggle to survive.

We are calling on you to join us and to gather hundreds, and hundreds of our sisters and brothers as people of many faiths, yet one in the human race, and as Children of God.


PLEASE PUT AUGUST 12 AT 2:00 PM ON YOUR CALENDAR
FOR
DANBURY. WE NEED BISHOPS! WE NEED PASTORS! WE
NEED
PROPHETS, ACTIVISTS AND PEOPLE WHO SIMPLE KNOW THE
PATH WE ARE ON IS WRONG.

IT IS A VIGIL CALL TO REPENTANCE, TO PRAY FOR ALL
VICTIMS, TO PRAY FOR SOLIDARITY WITH ALL IN NEED,
TO REMIND OURSELVES THAT WE, WHO ARE FEW, ARE RICH IN
MATERIAL WEALTH IN A WORLD WHERE MOST PEOPLE DO
NOT
KNOW WHERE TOMORROW'S FOOD WILL COME FROM.

Reverend Gail Keeney-Mulligan has addressed this issue correctly. Activists, and Faith leaders must join together. We must overcome politics, and personal issues, and realize what is at stake in this battle. Our souls. America, as a whole, is a country founded by those who faced oppression. It was built, by people fleeing poverty, starvation, political strife, and personal tragedies. Just like the Immigrants from today. Danbury, as a microchosm of this great nation, has likewise been built from the sweat of Immigrant labor. And the salt of immigrant tears. It is our sincere belief that the change that needs to happen in America right now, needs to begin in the hearts of its people. And who better to lead the people, then the various shepherds of their many faiths? In the words of Martin Luther King "An injury to one, is an injury to all". Our Immigrant Brothers and Sisters, are only separated by us in matters of language, and culture. NOT in matters of humanity. We must realize that if we turn a blind eye to their mistreatment, we open a door in which any culture, religion, or person can be the victim of similar victimization. It is time to unite, in our common values, and support our brothers and sisters. Activists marching alone cannot turn back the tide. Though the power of people demonstrating is a power to be reckoned with, so too is the power of unity with purpose in any manner. Please attend this vigil, and stand united against racism, oppression, and victimization.