The Basics
Please support the United Methodist Committee on Relief's Global Refugee Response Advance #982540. It enables UMCOR Refugee Ministries to respond to emergency requests from projects that are not otherwise funded through the Advance. The One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) offering undergirds UMCOR's ongoing work. Your donations may be sent through a local United Methodist church, Annual Conference or by mailing the check directly to: UMCOR, Room #330, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115. For credit-card donations, call 1-800-554-8583.
About UMCOR
Justice for Our Neighbors: A GBGM Immigration Response.
Refugees/Immigrants Resources and Stories.
Refugees Packet: Lots of information and helps
Vignettes of Refugee Families Helped by United Methodists: UMCOR Church Bulletin Insert.
World Refugee Day Resources(June 20)
World Refugee Day 2005: Two UMCOR Church Bulletin Inserts.
The Plight of Displaced People
The plight of people driven from their homelands by violence, oppression, and natural disaster presents a compelling challenge to United Methodists. Deeply concerned about this human suffering,
UMCOR serves the church as its agency of refugee service.
After World War II, many people expected the flow of refugees to subside. Yet half a century later, the flight is not only continuing but growing. The United Nations estimates the current number of refugees at 20 million or more, and an even larger number of people are displaced within their own countries.
Persistent political conflicts can keep people in refugee status
for generations. For example, UMCOR has been assisting Palestinian
refugees since the first Israeli-Arab war of 1948. In addition, new
outbreaks of violence keep forcing people to flee. To aid the
refugees from Rwanda (along with refugees and displaced people from
earlier conflicts elsewhere in Africa), the bishops have launched
a churchwide Appeal and Campaign for Africa.
When faced with a refugee emergency, UMCOR immediately provides
food, shelter, medicine, and other essentials for survival. It then
begins to address the long-term needs of refugees in the places
where they have settled and to plan for their return home when that
becomes possible. In recent years, UMCOR has been able to help with
repatriation of refugees from such countries as El Salvador,
Guatemala, Liberia, and Mozambique.
In some cases, a small percentage of the total number of refugees
will be permanently resettled in another country. To assist
refugees who get U.S. government approval for settlement in the
United States, UMCOR works through the National Council of the
Churches of Christ (NCCC), Church World Service (CWS), and local
ecumenical agencies in the CWS network. In cooperation with CWS and
through some independent efforts, UMCOR also helps those refugees
who come to the United States without prior government approval and
then apply for asylum.
Local churches play a crucial role in resettlement. Sometimes one
church will take full responsibility for a family, but churches
unable to make this kind of commitment can also help by supplying
one or two of the many refugee needs: food for an initial period,
housing, furniture, help with job hunting, language instruction,
and other basics.
A fundamental service that church members can always offer is
personal friendship. Local churches can also work in the community
to develop attitudes helpful to the refugee population.
Cubans, Vietnamese, Eastern Europeans, and other groups have come
into the forefront of resettlement efforts at various times. UMCOR
has worked persistently over many years to serve Haitian refugees
and seek fairer treatment for them. It has also resettled refugees
from dozens of other countries, year in and year out, with little
public recognition.
Also of Interest
Action by Churches Together
Action by Churches Together (ACT) is a worldwide network of Churches and their related agencies meeting human need through co-ordinated emergency response and common identity. The ACT network is organizationally based in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) and is a co-ordinating rather than operational office.
Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program Born in the aftermath of World War II, today Church World Service is 33 Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox communions in the U.S., cooperating worldwide in programs of long-term development, emergency response, and assistance to refugees.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (in English and French)
Basic information about UNHCR and refugees ordinary people who have left their homes to escape war, persecution and human rights abuse.
US Immigration Reform: A Call to Bishops
