PRINCETON UMC
Seeking Home:
Immigration Resources
*Part 3 is best viewed on a desktop or laptop due to the layout of the chart
Part 1: Congregational Reading: What the UMC Believes About Immigrants and Migrants
An Invitation to Read and Reflect Together This Season
As part of our Advent worship series, 'Seeking Home,' we invited you to spend a few minutes this season reading the United Methodist Church's statement:
"What the UMC Believes About Immigrants and Migrants"
This short and accessible article outlines our denomination's core beliefs and commitments related to immigration, including:
1. The God-given dignity and rights of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers
2. A call to oppose unjust immigration policies and border enforcement tactics
3. A vision of welcome, compassion, and systemic justice
Reflection Questions
What surprised or challenged me in this statement?
Where have I experienced the tension between faith and fear around immigration?
What small or large act of welcome is God inviting me to this season?
Part 2: Gathering Immigrant Stories
This Advent, we’re centering stories of journey, courage, and seeking home. If you are an immigrant or part of a migrant family and are willing to share a small piece of your story (even anonymously), we’d be honored to receive your story! It’s possible that we may include it in an upcoming worship service, in our weekly email Happenings, or an upcoming newsletter.
You can:
Share anonymously or with your name
Share something brief (as short as 1-2 sentences or a short paragraph) or, if you have a lot, share something longer
Share something in writing or video
Put a written piece in the offering plate during worship
Had a written piece to a staff member
Mail a written piece to the church (7 Vandeventer Ave., Princeton, NJ 08542)
A few ideas about what you might share:
What has helped you feel at home?
What was the hardest part of moving?
Where did you experience God on the journey?
What do you want others to know about your experience of immigration?
Part 3: Organizations that Focus on Immigrants
Immigration is a complex, many-faceted, dynamic matter and process. The following organizations represent several of these facets: legal assistance, hospitality and resettlement, education, community organizing, advocacy, empowerment, and more. This is not an exhaustive list.
Part 4: Action Steps for Justice, Hospitality, & Resistance
"What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God?" —Micah 6:8
Often we want to DO something, to take action. It’s often difficult to figure out WHAT to do, however. Here are some ideas. Some have to do with Advocacy and Organizing, others with Hospitality and Welcome, and still others to do with Solidarity. Some are things you can do easily and quickly, others will take more effort and courage.
Systemic Action: Advocacy, Organizing, & Structural Justice
These efforts aim to challenge and transform unjust laws, policies, and systems that harm immigrants and asylum seekers.
1. Advocate to End Detention & Expand Pathways to Citizenship
Write or call your representatives in support of:
Ending immigrant detention in NJ (refer to campaigns like #DignityNotDetention)
Expand DACA and permanent protections for Dreamers
Humane asylum processing and restoration of refugee admissions
Track relevant legislation through justiceforimmigrants.org (a Catholic initiative with reliable updates and sample letters)
2. Partner with Local Advocacy Groups
Connect with immigrant-led or allied organizations in NJ like:
Make the Road New Jersey
Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center (Morristown)
New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice
3. Support Sanctuary & Rapid Response Networks
Volunteer or donate to local churches and networks offering sanctuary or accompaniment
Learn about NJ rapid response hotlines and how to support community defense efforts when ICE activity is reported
Hospitality & Community-Building: Micro-Movements
Small acts of presence, relationship, and trust-building that create a more just and welcoming environment.
4. Become a Language Ally
Learn a few key phrases in another language spoken by immigrants in your community
Offer to accompany someone to a doctor’s appointment or government office where English translation is a barrier
5. Support Immigrant-Led Businesses and Artists
Patronize immigrant-owned small businesses in the area
Spread the word about these businesses and organizations
6. Volunteer and Share
Help with local ESL classes at the library or see how you can help at local legal aid clinics
Have household items to donate? Check in with a local resettlement organization like InterfaithRISE to see if they have use for your items
Donate to local legal defense funds. Donate here to the “We Stand In Solidarity” United Methodists of Greater New Jersey Immigration Justice Fund
Everyday Resistance: Micro-Practices of Solidarity
Even in everyday life, we can practice resistance to fear and exclusion through small, intentional acts.
7. Be a Visible Witness
Place signs in your home or church: “No human being is illegal”, “We welcome immigrants”, or “Love has no borders”
Wear buttons or clothing with messages of welcome and resistance
8. Notice and Interrupt Harm
Speak up when you hear racist or anti-immigrant remarks
Challenge terms like “illegal” with love and clarity
Learn simple de-escalation strategies to intervene in public settings (see: Hollaback’s Bystander Intervention Training)
9. Practice Story Listening
Make a regular habit of asking, “What’s your story?” in safe, respectful, and non-invasive ways
Let listening lead to connection—not comparison or fixing
10. Pray with Your Feet
Join marches, vigils, or prayer walks for immigrant justice
Invite children and youth to make prayer flags or art in support of migrant families
11. Listen and Learn
Host a film or book discussion (there are many films and books listed below)
Invite immigrants in your small group or neighborhood to share their immigration stories. If you don’t have an immigrant in your small group, invite an immigrant who is willing to share with your group as a guest. Invite an immigrant neighbor to dinner or coffee
12. Help our church with our ICE response policy
Volunteer as one of our point persons for our ICE response policy
Take a look at the point person training video
13. Practice Radical Hospitality
At church, work, school: greet newcomers
Learn names
Many immigrants take Americanized names. Ask permission to call someone by their given name. If this is welcomed, work to learn to pronounce it correctly
14. Support Language Access
Push for multilingual signs and translations in local services, schools, and help our church to do this too
15. Learn One New Law or Policy Each Week
Share it with a friend. Knowledge is power—and compassion in action
See an unjust law or policy? Reach out to your lawmaker representative and ask them to take action against it
Prayer Practice: "Blessing the Borders We Cross"
As you pass through a doorway, enter a neighborhood, or cross a boundary in your daily life, whisper a prayer:
“Christ, you crossed into our world. Help me cross into love, truth, and holy welcome.”
Part 5: United Methodist Resources
The United Methodist Church has a lot to say on the topic of immigration. The UMC is also working, advocating, teaching, and standing in solidarity with immigrants.
What The United Methodist Church believes about immigration and migrants
Part 6: Explore, Learn, Read, Watch, Listen
There is much to explore and learn about when it comes to immigration, immigrant experiences, and understanding the many facets of immigration. There are books here for young children (picture books), as well as middle graders. Perhaps you would like to engage the young people in your life around the topic. There are also multi-media offerings here for adults of all ages. A note: Pastor Jenny (who compiled this list) has not read, watched, or listened to every one of these resources, though every effort was made to find resources that align with our denominational stance and the core values of PUMC.
Podcasts
How To Be American (The Tenement Museum)
Indefensible (Immigrant Defense Project)
Only in America Podcast (National Immigration Forum)
StoryCorps Podcast (look for episodes featuring immigrants)
Immigrant-Led Media
Documented NY
Define American
FWD.us
Part 7: Scripture Passages
One of the threads in scripture is migration and the movement of God and God’s people. There aren’t enough Sundays in Advent to cover all of the important passages in scripture. Even this is not an exhaustive list. You’re encouraged to read not just the verse or verses that is listed here, but read the whole passage that contains the verse.
Reflect:
What’s happening in this story?
Where is God in this story?
What does it say about migration, immigration, and hospitality?
What is the invitation for us today?
Migration as a Calling, Covenant, and Blessing
Genesis 12:1–9 – God calls Abram to leave his homeland; the beginning of a migratory journey that becomes a covenantal thread
Genesis 46:1–7 – Jacob (Israel) migrates to Egypt with his family during famine
Exodus 12–14 – The defining liberation migration: the Israelites flee Egypt, led by God through the wilderness
Deuteronomy 26:5–10 – “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor…” A liturgical retelling of displacement and divine rescue
Migration and Survival
Ruth 1–4 – Ruth’s migration from Moab to Judah, seeking food and community; God works through her faithful presence
Matthew 2:13–23 – The Holy Family flees to Egypt, becoming refugees under Herod’s violent regime
Acts 18:1–3 – Paul meets Priscilla and Aquila, Jewish refugees from Rome, and joins them in ministry and tentmaking
God's Commands Regarding the Immigrant or Sojourner
Leviticus 19:33–34 – “You shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 10:18–19 – God “loves the strangers” and commands Israel to do the same
Exodus 22:21 – Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner
Jeremiah 7:5–7 – Do justice by not oppressing the alien, the orphan, and the widow
Migration in Exile and Return
Psalm 137 – A lament from exile in Babylon: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”
Isaiah 11:10–16 – A vision of return: God gathers the outcasts and heals the divisions among peoples
Jeremiah 29:4-7 - How to live in a foreign land
Nehemiah 1:1–11 – Nehemiah, an exile in the king’s court, seeks to return and rebuild Jerusalem
Ezra 1–2 – The people return from Babylon, bringing hope and complexity to the rebuilding process. In Ezra 9-10, the immigration issue complicates things further
Jesus and the Movement of People
Luke 4:16–30 – Jesus announces his mission—and it’s for outsiders. His message of inclusion causes offense
Luke 9:58 – “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus identifies with the unhoused, the migrant, the vulnerable
John 4:1–30 – A cross-border, cross-cultural encounter at a well. Jesus listens and speaks across divisions
Acts 2:5–11 – Pentecost: migrants from every nation under heaven hear God’s voice in their own language
Hospitality and God's Movement Toward Us
Luke 2:7 – There was no room in the inn
John 1:14 - The word became flesh and lived among us
Hebrews 13:2 - reasons for showing hospitality
Revelation 21:3 - God’s home
Prepared in collaboration with SARAH (Spiritually Attuned Resource for Awakening and Hope), Pastor Jenny’s AI ministry assistant developed by OpenAI.