New Mexico

A Stop in New Mexico and a visit with Mary Ann Corley

Mary Ann was the director of American Friends Service in Committee in Chicago during the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s. The Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America received refugees from Tucson and other communities on the US/Mexico border and placed them with a congregations. These refugees were fleeing wars in El Salvador and Guatemala that were funded by the U.S. government. The Sanctuary Movement was working to support refugees who were fleeing from certain death and to change U.S. foreign policy. Although there are many connections between the struggles of the 1980s and today we are still figuring out how to live out the call to action given the realities we live in today.

Visiting with Mary Ann helped lift up Chicago's strong roots of participating in the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s. Mary Ann worked with Dan Dale, among many others, to organize the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s and supported Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ as the first congregation in Chicago to declare themselves a Sanctuary Church. Today Wellington has again responded to the call for justice and solidarity and they have declared themselves a part of the New Sanctuary Movement. Congregations throughout the country are answering this same call to hospitality and welcoming the stranger.

Our visit with Mary Ann started our journey by reflecting on the past and looking to how we build the New Sanctuary Movement on the strong traditions of the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s.

http://www.waucc.org
http://www.newsanctuarymovement.org/
http://www.clueca.org/
http://www.afsc.org
http://www.iwj.org/