But let justice roll down like waters…
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
| Amos 5:24
| Heeding The Call To Resist
As people of faith and conscience, in 2025 we reaffirm our commitment to resisting policies that target and harm immigrant communities, including efforts to criminalize, detain, and deport millions of undocumented people. In the face of ongoing threats to human dignity, we stand in solidarity with immigrants and all those scapegoated by state-sanctioned discrimination and xenophobia. We pledge to embody faithful resistance in the public square and ensure that our congregations and communities are spaces of understanding, solidarity, and support for those facing cruel immigration policies.
Calling upon the ancient traditions of our faiths, which have long upheld the values of refuge, hospitality, and justice, we continue to walk alongside those seeking safety and dignity. Today, as families flee violence, poverty, and climate devastation, and as immigration enforcement intensifies its reach into everyday life, we remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting and supporting those in need.
We are living through a time in U.S. history where fear and division are used to justify restrictive immigration policies, mass surveillance, and targeted discrimination. Ongoing legislative attacks, coupled with state-level crackdowns on immigrant protections, threaten to tear communities apart and deepen systemic injustices. As deportation raids, detention center abuses, and anti-immigrant rhetoric persist, we will not be silent.
We pledge to take moral action in defense of human rights and dignity, opposing all policies that undermine due process and harm immigrant communities. We commit to educating and mobilizing our congregations, amplifying the voices of immigrant leaders, and speaking out against the discrimination of all marginalized people.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What does it mean to be a Sanctuary Diocese?
A. On December 3, 2016 the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles adopted a resolution declaring itself a “Sanctuary Diocese.” [Resolution text provided on reverse side.] Here are responses to some of the most frequently asked questions regarding both the intent and impact of the resolution on our work and witness as members of what our Presiding Bishop calls “The Jesus Movement.”
Q. What exactly does the resolution call for?
A. The resolution explicitly calls for resistance to policy proposals to target and deport millions of undocumented immigrants and to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. It further calls for connecting with other local and national sanctuary communities and institutions, immigrant rights groups and coalitions, and engaging in educating, organizing, advocacy, and direct action, and other methods as deemed appropriate in each context, to ensure the safety and security of those targeted due to immigration status.
Q. What specifically does the resolution ask churches to do?
A. It urges congregations and institutions to discern how they are called to serve as places of welcome, refuge, healing, and offer forms of material and pastoral support for those targeted by hate for any perceived status of difference and that we work alongside our friends, families, and neighbors to ensure the dignity and human rights of all people – by sacred resistance when necessary.
Q. What is “sacred resistance?”
A. One of the core promises of our baptismal covenant is to “persevere in resisting evil.” We understand that as a call to stand in resistance to the systemic evils that oppress and marginalize any member of our human family – including but not limited to racism, sexism, nativism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Grounded in our baptismal promises, our resistance to public policies that perpetuate those evils is how we put our faith into action in the world.
Q. What are the legal implications of being a Sanctuary Diocese?
A. Being in the U.S. without proper documents is a civil offense, not a criminal one. It is simply not a crime to be undocumented and describing any immigrant as “illegal” is legally inaccurate. In becoming a Sanctuary Diocese we join with the growing number of cities, colleges and communities of faith declaring themselves sanctuaries and stand ready to challenge the unjust targeting of immigrant members of our communities.
Q. Will churches serve as physical sanctuaries to immigrants under threat of deportation?
If it comes to that, we expect that there will be congregations which would choose to live into the resolution by providing physical sanctuary. Others will provide a broad range of support including legal assistance, material support and pastoral care.
Q. So what are the next steps?
A. The resolution commits the Diocese of Los Angeles to “assist in equipping congregations, clergy and lay leaders to engage in such work, appropriate to local contexts, capacity, and discernment.” Toward that end the Bishop has appointed a Sanctuary Task Force -- co-chaired by the Reverends Jaime Edwards Acton and Francisco Garcia -- to coordinate the implementation of the resolution adopted by our Diocesan Convention.
For more information contact: The Rev. Can. Jaime Edwards-Acton, hopeinhollywood@gmail.com
The Resolution
Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles Resolution Regarding Becoming a Sanctuary Diocese
Resolved, that the One Hundred Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Church in the Diocese of Los Angeles declares the Diocese of Los Angeles to be a Sanctuary Diocese; and be it further
Resolved, that the Diocese of Los Angeles, as people of faith and people of conscience, pledges to resist the stated policy proposals of the newly elected Trump administration to target and deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that has granted temporary relief for thousands of young people in our communities and families; and be it further
Resolved, that the congregations and institutions of the Diocese of Los Angeles consider
becoming Sanctuary Congregations and Institutions, serving as places of welcome, refuge, healing, and other forms of material and pastoral support for those targeted by hate due to immigration status or some perceived status of difference, and that we work alongside our friends, families, and neighbors to ensure the dignity and human rights of all people; and be it further
Resolved, that the Diocese of Los Angeles connect with other local and national sanctuary communities and institutions, immigrant rights groups and coalitions, and engage in educating, organizing, advocacy, and direct action, and other methods as deemed appropriate in each context, to ensure the safety and security of the undocumented community; and be it further
Resolved, that the Diocese of Los Angeles assist in equipping congregations, clergy and lay leaders to engage in such work, appropriate to local contexts, capacity, and discernment.
Explanation
For many years, immigrant families have suffered on the margins of our society. They have been scapegoated during difficult economic times and victimized by harsh anti-immigrant ordinances passed by some states and localities.
In the aftermath of the recent presidential election there is heightened concern that the
campaign rhetoric villainizing immigrants will become policy targeting them because of their immigration status or religious beliefs.
As a people of faith committed to dismantling oppressive systems and building structures and communities that reflect God’s compassion and justice, we must do nothing less than make straight a highway in the desert for our sisters and brothers.
This resolution puts our faith into action by standing with the growing number of cities, colleges and communities of faith declaring themselves places of welcome, refuge, healing, for those targeted by hate due to immigration status or some perceived status of difference as we work alongside our friends, families, and neighbors to ensure the dignity and human rights of all