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Events Resources

Border Experience Pilgrimage

Faith leaders from Northern and Southern California visited Calexico, US and Mexicali, Mexico April 26th-27th, 2023 in a multifaith Pilgrimage to learn and bear witness to struggles immigrants are facing at the U.S. – Mexico border in California, and to call for a better future. The delegation first traveled to Mexico to visit a shelter in Mexicali where many asylum seekers have been blocked from approaching the border and seeking asylum and protection. The following day, the group conducted a prayer service in front of Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico, US, to bear witness to the suffering of those who are detained inside. The Pilgrimage ended with a visit to the Holtville cemetery of unnamed immigrants who have died in the desert in the region.

The Pilgrimage aimed to shed light on the injustices of the current asylum seeking process and immigrant detention. Fairness, freedom and opportunity should be at the core of our immigration system, but our current system isn’t set up to uphold these values. Instead, the Federal Government systematically blocks and deprives people of their liberty, separates them from their loved ones, and often puts lives at risk in ICE detention. The current system of detention didn’t exist just a few decades ago, and is inhumane and unnecessary: people can navigate immigration proceedings while living with their families or in the community without the trauma of immigration detention.

Learn more about the Imperial Valley, the harms of immigrant detention including at Imperial Regional Detention Facility, and the right to seek asylum with the Border Experience Pilgrimage Resource Guide.

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Accompaniment Interfaith Prayer Vigils

Video: the Sanctuary Huddle at St. John’s

Click to watch video “St. John’s Sanctuary Huddle”, 2:31 mins

The Sanctuary Huddle
St. John’s Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, CA
Rev. Dr. Theresa Cho (she/her), Pastor
stjohnssf.org
stjohnssf.org/sanctuary

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Events

Marin Interfaith Council: Emerging Visionaries

The Marin Interfaith Council 17th annual Emerging Visionaries event took place Tuesday, Novemeber 1, 2022 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon.

Each year at this event, through storytelling, sharing emerging perspectives and timeless wisdom, faith and community leaders inspire attendees to see and enact their own vision for shifting the current reality toward a world where everyone thrives and is welcome.

This year, Emerging Visionaries: Faith in Action focused on how our spiritual roots nourish, guide and inspire us to engage issues of justice, inclusion, service, and peacemaking in our community and world. The speakers were Rev. Deborah Lee, Executive Director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and Elaine Tokalahi, Director of Volunteer Services at Center for Volunteer & Nonprofit Leadership, MarinHealth Health Board Member, and Member of The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of San Rafael.

Rev. Deborah Lee:

Rev. Deborah Lee is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. Rev. Lee has worked at the intersection of faith and social justice for over 25 years in popular education, community organizing and advocacy connecting issues of race, gender, economic justice, antimilitarism, LGBTQ inclusion and immigrant rights. She has consistently sought to strengthen the voice and role of faith communities in today’s social movements.

Elaine Tokolahi:

Elaine is a humble Baha’i who resides in San Rafael. She dedicates her career and her personal life to the betterment of humanity. For the past five years, Elaine has served as the Director of Volunteer Services at the Center for Volunteer & Nonprofit Leadership where she gets to lead a team of amazing changemakers whose lives are also dedicated to service.