{"id":10769,"date":"2016-03-01T21:42:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T04:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=10769"},"modified":"2016-03-01T21:42:20","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T04:42:20","slug":"at-billings-vigil-words-of-welcome-spoken-for-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/03\/at-billings-vigil-words-of-welcome-spoken-for-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"At Billings vigil, words of welcome spoken for refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hymn\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Participants in a prayer vigil in support of refugees join in singing a hymn Tuesday night at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.<\/p><\/div>\n

At St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Billings, and in four other cities across Montana Tuesday night, people gathered to offer the world\u2019s refugees some hope\u2014and the possibility of refuge.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerosity is a virtue,\u201d said Fitzgerald Clark, once an immigrant and now an American citizen. \u201cGenerosity and community are what make us great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gatherings Tuesday in Billings, Helena, Missoula, Kalispell and Bozeman were organized by the Montana Human Rights Network and agencies in the host cities in response to recent anti-refugee rallies in Missoula<\/a> and Hamilton<\/a>, which were characterized by angry, inflammatory speeches.<\/p>\n

There was little mention of those rallies at St. Andrew, except by the church\u2019s pastor, the Rev. Susan Barnes, in her introductory remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people are afraid, they don\u2019t speak carefully,\u201d she said. But people like those who gathered Tuesday need to be welcoming not only to refugees but to people with contrary views\u2014\u201cor as I like to say,\u201d she said, to a burst of laughter, \u201cpeople who are wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The peaceful nature of the Billings gathering, which attracted about 90 people, was probably inevitable, since it was held in a church sanctuary and involved prayers and the singing of hymns. Barnes said of all the events scheduled around the state on Tuesday, the only prayer vigil was in Billings.<\/p>\n

A press release from the Montana Human Rights Network later Tuesday said the statewide rallies drew more than 1,500 people.<\/p>\n

The vigil in Billings centered on the words of three \u201cAmerican citizens from around the world\u201d\u2014Clark, born in the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Yasmin Odawa, born in Somalia; and Marty Ortis, born in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Clark, whose family came to the United States when he was a teenager, said people in his homeland regarded this country as \u201cthe shining city on the hill\u201d not because it was so wealthy. Many other nations had high standards of living, he said, \u201cbut none of those countries were looked at in the way the United States of America was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, he said, what mattered was the idea of freedom and the sense of opportunity, the idea that this was a place where people could be \u201call they hope to be.\u201d Clark, who is Baha\u2019i, spoke of all the people in the world driven from their countries by war, oppression, rape and terrorism.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we turn aside our faces?\u201d he asked. \u201cHow can we say no because we are afraid?\u201d<\/p>\n

Odawa, who has been in the United States for 13 years, told of the \u201clong and arduous\u201d process her family went through to get into this country. Even so, she said, it was one of the wisest and most important decisions her parents ever made.<\/p>\n

Because of their decision, she said, she is who she is today, \u201ca gainfully employed college graduate\u201d living in \u201ca land of opportunity for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ortiz, who is also chair of Not In Our Town, the local sponsor of the prayer vigil, said she was not technically an immigrant\u2014though she is always encountering people who are unaware that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, and that people born there are natural-born citizens.<\/p>\n

\"Interview\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Just before the start of the vigil, Stella Daskalakis, right, of KULR News, prepares to interview Marty Ortiz, chair of Not In Our Town.<\/p><\/div>\n

She said her parents looked on the United States as \u201cthe most amazing thing there was.\u201d When she first came to America, Ortiz said, she attended a church in Florida whose congregation was mostly Puerto Rican and Latin American.<\/p>\n

One time the minister asked the Puerto Ricans to considered how fortunate they were to be born with a \u201cfree ticket\u201d to the United States. Ortiz said she has often considered how fortunate, how privileged she was ever since that day, and she wonders how anybody so privileged could turn around and exclude other people.<\/p>\n

After those three spoke, the Rev. Sarah Beck, of Grace United Methodist Church, offered a prayer in which she thanked God for filling the world \u201cwith beauty and diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen our hearts and make room for those in need,\u201d she said, and she urged people at the gathering to pray for those who fear, people \u201cwho look into the face of a refugee and seen an enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHelp us not be afraid to do what\u2019s right,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After that, people were invited to go to the altar, light and candle and say a few words. Nine or 10 people did, sharing brief stories without giving their names.<\/p>\n

One woman told of the prejudices faced by her niece, who married a Muslim, converted to Islam and now wears a veil. Another said her distant ancestors were French horse thieves, \u201cand they got to come\u201d to the United States.<\/p>\n

One person said her birthday once fell during Ramadan, the month-long observance when Muslims abstain from food from dawn to sunset. Her Muslim son-in-law, originally from Bangladesh, celebrated her birthday by eating pizza and birthday cake at midnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most fun birthday I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

During his closing remarks, the Rev. Mike Mulberry of First Church, United Church of Christ, said the Bible was packed with the stories of immigrants. He cited many of them, including, of course, Joseph, Mary and Jesus, and after naming each group or individual he said, \u201cHow can we not know them as family?\u201d<\/p>\n

He asked those listening to say, after each repetition of that line, \u201cFor we belong to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Montana does begin taking in refugees, Mulberry said, it will be two years before any of them arrive here. In the meantime, Montanans should be thinking of whether they have room in their homes or their church buildings to take in a refugee family or an individual.<\/p>\n

Montana and Wyoming are the only two states unable to accept refugees for lack of a refugee resettlement office in the state. A group called Soft Landing Missoula is working to establish such an office.<\/p>\n

In January, the Missoula County Board of Commissioners sent a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in support of Soft Landing\u2019s request to help resettle \u201capproximately 100 refugees per year\u201d through the International Rescue Committee\u2019s Reception and Placement program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Billings, and in four other cities across Montana Tuesday night, people gathered to offer the world\u2019s refugees some hope\u2014and the possibility of refuge. \u201cGenerosity is a virtue,\u201d said Fitzgerald Clark, once an immigrant and now an American citizen. \u201cGenerosity and community are what make us great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3920,391,299,3917,3918,3919],"class_list":["post-10769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","tag-marty-ortiz","tag-montana-human-rights-network","tag-not-in-our-town","tag-refugees","tag-st-andrew-presbyterian-church","tag-susan-barnes","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}