There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.Leonard Cohen

Remembering The Migrants

To be an immigrant is difficult enough, to be a migrant is a fate that is often at the forefront of my compassion. There are 250 million migrants in the world, usually in search of work, or safety or better conditions. They brave hardships foreign to most of us, in addition to conditions which bring out racism, sexism, and the consequences of ethnic and political tensions. Because of their status, they often have no churches to go to or to cater to their needs. Finally, Churches are beginning to be sensitive to what those needs and problems may be. At a recent meeting in the Netherlands, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order, their program on Just and Inclusive Communities, the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism along with the Ecumenical Network on Multicultural Ministry and Mission organized what they called an international consultation. They will prepare a statement for the WCC next assembly in South Korea in 2013. It may not seem like much, and it really isn’t, and yet it stands to make a difference because at last the issue is recognized as a challenge to how the churches sees themselves as well as their mission to migrants.