EPISCOPAL BISHOP LEADS PROTEST IN TAYLOR
Event led by Episcopal bishop who spoke at the royal wedding.
On Sunday, in a setting far removed from the royal wedding, the Most Rev. Michael Curry spoke again of love. This time, he stressed the importance of love for one’s neighbor.
“We come in love. We come in love because we follow Jesus,” Curry, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said during a prayer service that drew an estimated 1,100 worshippers outside the T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor. “Jesus taught us love. Love your neighbor . ... The teachings of Jesus to love God and love our neighbor is at the core and the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.”
Curry’s remarks came as part of a peaceful protest against U.S. immigration policies, including the now-ceased practice of separating migrant children from their parents. As temperatures neared 90 degrees, Curry’s sermon mixed with hymns and peaceful chants beyond the perimeter of the detention center.
The T. Don Hutto facility is operated for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by CoreCivic, a private company that manages prisons and detention centers. Once a medium-security prison, the facility has been the target of frequent lawsuits concerning various complaints, including harsh conditions, poor food and sexually abusive guards.
Originally a detention center for families, it has housed only female immigrants and asylum-seekers since 2009. Last week, Williamson County commissioners voted to end the county’s contract with ICE through CoreCivic. The contract will expire in January.
Curry, whose sermon at the May 19 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle catapulted him into the public consciousness, has joined thousands of Episcopalians in Austin for the church’s General Convention,
which will conclude next Sunday. During the triennial meeting, the church’s deputies and bishops weigh a wide range of important matters, including gun violence, immigration policy and gender equity.
On Sunday, event organizers said Episcopalians representing 110 dioceses and 11 countries attended the prayer service.
“Turnout was really amazing,” said Rev. Megan Castellan of Ithaca, N.Y., the event’s chief organizer. “It goes to show how the church is ready for a Christianity that links voices and actions.”
Castellan said the group’s goal was to speak out against the policy of separating detained migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We’ve never done this before,” Castellan said, “but we thought it would be un-Christian to go to a border state during a humanitarian crisis and not do something to (show support and love) to those affected.”
Last week, Alex Azar, the U.S. secretary of health and human services under President Donald Trump, said in a conference call with reporters that nearly 3,000 children were in federal custody as a result of family separations intended to deter illegal immigration and that about 100 of them were under the age of 5.
Roy and Elizabeth Barker of southern Ohio said they attended Sunday’s prayer service in hope that their prayers against the separation of families would be heard.
“When state laws are not in accordance with God’s law, it is our obligation as Christians to speak up and say that God does not want families separated,” said Matt Bradley, who traveled to the convention from Kentucky.
Before Sunday’s prayer service outside the detention facility, Curry joined with nearly 80 Episcopal bishops to lead an anti-gun violence rally at Brush Square Park in downtown Austin.