The Academy of Parish Leadership (APL) met at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Geneva on 19-20 September for a training weekend focused on the refugee crisis. Eighteen participants shared insights from existing projects while working to establish a framework to identify existing needs and collaborate on ways to meet those needs across the Convocation.
“One of our goals is to raise awareness, not only of the refugee situation, but what we are doing within the convocation, what tools we have to help congregations discern what it is that they can or want to do and what the needs of their city are,” said Janet Day-Strehlow, chair of the Convocation’s European Institute for Christian Studies (EICS), which sponsored the weekend.
The Convocation and Episcopal Relief and Development established the Convocation Refugee Grant Program (CRGP) as a joint effort in 2022. The program was occasioned by the war in Ukraine but is designed to strengthen the ability of congregations in communion with the Episcopal Church in Europe to understand and respond more resourcefully to the needs of all refugees in the communities they serve.
During the APL, representatives from various Convocation-wide refugee initiatives focused on how their individual programs are designed to fill gaps in local community services in ways that respond to our Baptismal Covenant by respecting the dignity of all human beings. “Churches interested in assisting refugees and migrants first need to understand what social and cultural services are already available,” said Giulia Bonoldi, managing director of Rome’s Joel Nafuma Refugee Center. “Churches need to work alongside community partners and add value.”
Congregations interested in the CRGP will find more information here.
EICS hosts multiple APLs throughout the year, both online and in person, working with other commissions of the Convocation to offer APLs in their areas of ministry.
A more extensive article on this APL in the context of the Episcopal Church’s wider efforts to address the global refugee crisis is available on the Episcopal News Service.