Petitions and Resolutions: Children of Immigrants Deserve Education

• Leviticus 19:33-34

  33 “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. 34 The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

• Matthew 25:31-40

  The Judgment of the Nations

  31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’

I may have lied last week when I said that I wouldn’t be reading this week’s petition aloud. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that it would probably just be for the best if I read each one at the beginning of the sermon. That way, we all, more or less, start off in the same place, regardless of whether or not you read ahead of time. So, here is our second petition: Children of Immigrants Deserve Education.

Brief Rationale:

The current disruptions in the lives of immigrants in the United States has harmed the ability of the children of immigrants to access schooling and resources. We speak and act in solidarity with the children of God whose parents are immigrants.

Whereas The United Methodist Church affirms that children are sacred gifts of God and that access to education, healthcare, and stability are matters of Christian concern; and

Whereas Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to protect the stranger, the vulnerable, and the child; and

Whereas access to stable and uninterrupted education is one of the most significant predictors of long-term wellbeing, economic opportunity, and social participation for children; and

Whereas children in immigrant families — including U.S. citizen children — may experience educational disruption due to immigration enforcement, family detention or deportation, lack of transportation, or lack of childcare access; and

Whereas in many rural communities of Upper New York, schools function as the primary point of connection between families and public institutions, making trust, safety, and continuity particularly important; and

Whereas disruptions in schooling caused by family separation, relocation, or fear of immigration enforcement can result in trauma, learning loss, and long-term harm; and

Whereas ensuring continuity of education, access to mental health support, childcare access, and transportation equity aligns with the United Methodist Church’s commitment

Therefore be it resolved that United Methodist of Upper New York affirm that all children — regardless of their or their parents' immigration status — deserve stable, uninterrupted access to education, and

Be it further resolved that we encourage local churches, districts, and affiliated ministries to partner with schools and community organizations to support children in immigrant families, including:

• providing tutoring, mentoring, or after-school support supporting access to childcare programs

• Assisting families in navigating school enrollment and services offering food support/provision or families in need

• offering transportation assistance where feasible; and

Be it further resolved that United Methodists in Upper New York advocate for policies in New York State that protect educational continuity for children affected by immigration enforcement by contacting their representatives. These policies include:

• Protections that prevent unnecessary school disruption

• Trauma-informed counseling and mental health services

• clear credit transfer and re-entry policies for displaced students safeguards

• allowing U.S. citizen children to maintain academic standing in temporarily abroad; and

Be it further resolved that United Methodist of Upper New York support measures that improve access to education in rural communities, including:

• Transportation access for students in immigrant families

• access to childcare and early childhood education programs

• community liaison roles that help families understand educational policies and services

Be if further resolved that the Upper New York Social Holiness Committee monitor relevant state legislation and communicate opportunities for advocacy to congregations; and that they forward this resolution to the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society and to ecumenical and interfaith partners in New York State as an expression of our shared commitment to children’s wellbeing.

Got all that? Good. As a note, we’ve gotten into a habit at Annual Conference of not getting a chance to address each piece of legislation that comes before us. This is partly because debate sometimes drags on for a while. This might be hard to believe, but when you get a few hundred pastors in a room together, the conversation can go on and on and on… Sometimes, it happens because we don’t manage our time well in other parts of the agenda. Either way, the response to this habit has been to do this thing where, if we feel like we might not get to all the petitions, we vote to bundle them all together and vote all at once with no debate. So, there was no discussion surrounding this petition, nor was there any for either of the next two petitions. This sermon, then, is sort of a speech in favor of this petition that I never got to give.

Last week, I began the sermon by talking about some of the things that Methodists are known for. Among these things I listed social action, the work of justice and mercy that has been a hallmark of the Methodist movement since John and Charles were still at Oxford. To be Methodist was not to be concerned with looking as stereotypically pious as you possibly could, but in recognizing that the most pious thing we can do is embrace our responsibility to care for one another. This love put into action took on many forms in the first century of Methodism, from the most hands-on to financial contributions. One fervent Methodist supporter, Selina Hastings (known as Lady Huntingdon) nearly bankrupted her husband by her financial backing of many Methodist ministries. I referenced last week the prison visitation ministry that the Wesleys engaged in with the very first group of Methodists, at the urging of one of their friends, William Morgan. Together, this group would pray with the incarcerated, pass letters along to family, and even advocate for those who were being mistreated or whom they believed were innocent.  One of these prisoners was a man named Thomas Blair, who was accused of being sexually intimate with another man. The Wesleys petitioned for an end to his mistreatment, and even raised funds to have him released from prison. This is the Methodist tradition of caring for the whole person, of meeting immediate needs with mercy, and of working for justice with those who are facing injustice.

Another part of this tradition is the Methodist commitment to education. One of the first major projects that John Wesley and the early Methodists undertook was to start a school. As Wesley was doing his travelling preacher thing around England, he saw for himself the ways in which poverty had become generational. He spent a fair amount of time around the coal miners of western England in particular, sympathizing with the cruel working conditions and little pay that the men earned. He also realized that the children of these coal miners would be restricted to their parents’ lives without intervention. So, in 1748, the Methodists opened the Kingswood School, primarily for the purpose of educating the children of coal miners so that they could have a shot at attending Oxford or Cambridge. The Methodists established other schools around the country, and many of the first Methodist preaching houses doubled as schools during the week. The Methodists became known as the people who might not have been the best-educated, but who actively worked to make education accessible to as many people as possible. And that tradition was carried over to North America, where such schools as Boston University, Syracuse University, Duke University, Bethune-Cookman University, and any school that has “Methodist” or “Wesleyan” in the name, were founded by Methodists and those of other offshoot denominations. 

Starting schools was, at one point, a top priority of the Methodist Church. By 1860, there were over 200 Methodist-affiliated primary schools, secondary schools, literary institutions, and colleges. Since the 1860s, the Methodist Church, and now the United Methodist Church, has had programs in place to provide financial assistance to members of the church attending colleges and universities—programs that we support every year when we take our United Methodist Student Special Sunday offering. In the 1970, the United Methodist Church established the Black College Fund to expand access to higher education for African Americans. We support that fund, also, through our giving. In the 1990s, the United Methodist Church also founded Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, to further expand access to education globally. The Methodist track record around schools isn’t perfect, though, and it’s important to note that there were a number of Methodist-founded Indigenous Boarding Schools that sought to eradicate indigenous culture and “civilise” the first peoples of this land. Even so, this Methodist emphasis on expanding access to education is truly something that has been central to how we have lived our faith since the very beginning. From local Sunday Schools to prestigious universities, the Methodist focus on education is not new, nor is it the influence of 21st-century ideals or “wokeism.”

So, to say that we support access to education for all children, or even for all people, regardless of the parent’s or child’s immigration status should be obvious. Before public schools existed, when even primary education was a commodity reserved for the wealthy, Methodists affirmed the sacred worth of each child and refused to let poor children be left behind. When higher education was seen as a privilege for those of one race but no other, one gender but no other, one nationality but no other—Methodists worked to expand access to education. And so today, when the barriers to even primary education are citizen status, the continued terrorization of children and families by ICE, and the trauma that our education system allows its students to experience, we Methodists are called to act. By our tradition and our faith, we are called to put God’s love into action, to create opportunities for all children to receive an education, to not have to worry about being abducted and disappeared by a government that deports its own citizens, and to be protected by those with privilege. By this petition, we are called to take specific actions—to partner with local schools. Because yes, we do have immigrant children in our local schools. We are called to provide academic assistance, mentoring, and support. We are called to provide transportation services, so that children don’t have to wait for a school bus while being watched by ICE, as happened in Lindenwold, New Jersey, last February. 

By food and school supplies, we are called to help so that our most vulnerable neighbors don’t have to put themselves at risk by going to Walmart or the Dollar Tree or Target just to buy the bare minimum for primary school learning. But our call doesn’t stop there, because being the people called Methodists means performing acts of mercy, yes. But it also means working for justice. It means advocating for education policies that make our children safer and ensure that they have the same access to education that our other children do. It means advocating for changes to immigration policies that tear apart families, that encourage neighbors to turn on one another, and that make our communities more dangerous. This is our call, to embrace immigrants and their children, and to treat all those who are vulnerable as if they were Christ in our midst. It sounds simple. It sounds obvious. But there is a need for this ministry, even if we don’t see it right in front of us. This is our call, as a local church that is a part of the United Methodist Connection, to take up this work. How will we embrace it? How will we live out what this petition, what our tradition, what our faith calls us to? Amen.