Second migration-focused webinar upcoming

Registration is open for the August 5 event

by Scott O’Neill | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — The PC(USA)’s World Mission Office of the Middle East and Europe, in conjunction with several denomination partners, is sponsoring a webinar focused on the challenges faced by forced migration. “People on the Move” is scheduled for Monday, August 5 at noon Eastern Time. Interested participants can register here.

This is the second webinar in a series that follows up on a regional consultation held in Rome this January which addressed the migration crisis. This webinar will feature colleagues from Lesvos Solidarity (Greece) and Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans, on the U.S./Mexico border. Discussions will center on global trends in migration policy, including externalization of borders, deterrence mechanisms, capricious immigration legislation and their implications. Presenters will exchange stories among partners and draw thought-provoking comparisons between contexts of mission and service. According to the webinar description, the implications of the identified trends have a direct impact on vulnerable people on the move caught in the crossfire of conflicts that thwart humanitarian efforts.

Luciano Kovacs, area coordinator for the Middle East and Europe office and moderator of this webinar, said, “We will discuss trends, implications, and how church and civil society are meeting the moment to act with compassion and justice despite the current challenges and those ahead. This webinar will allow participants to learn similarities in the anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies in Europe and the U.S. and how this plays out in the borderlands, whether in the Mediterranean or at the Southern U.S. border. Participants will also learn about solidarity work in Lesvos and Greece and in Sahuarita/Green Valley and the State of Arizona.”

Speakers include Liza Papadimitriou, who has been working on humanitarian affairs and advocacy in the field of forced migration in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Lebanon with Doctors Without Borders and Lesvos Solidarity since 2015. Her focus will be on aspects of the Greek and Mediterranean migration experience.

Liza Papadimitriou

“I’ll be talking about policies of harm but also acts of solidarity and collective efforts to bring about positive change for thousands of men, women and children whose only crime is to seek safety and protection in Europe,” said Papadimitriou.

Joining her on the speaker panel will be the Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer, a United Church of Christ minister. Deeply influenced by his time studying and living in Latin America, Mayer and his family moved to the Borderlands 27 years ago so he could serve as Senior Minister of the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita, Arizona — 35 miles from the U.S./Mexico border.

The Rev. Dr. Randy J. Mayer

As immigration and border issues have become increasingly intense, Mayer and his congregation have been key leaders among humanitarian groups in Southern Arizona. In 2005 they founded the Green Valley/Sahuarita Samaritans — a group of two hundred people who give food, water, and medical care to migrants in the desert.

“No one should be dying in our deserts,” said Mayer.

The first webinar in this series, held in May, focused on migration in Europe and Afghanistan and factors like violence, conflict, climate change, and natural disasters all contributing to people being forced to seek safety and security outside their homeland.

Webinar co-sponsors include the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI), the Reformed Church in America, and Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ.

Register for the webinar here.