Episcopal Church ends refugee program with US government, cites Afrikaners arrival as last straw

The Episcopal Church announced Monday it is ending its partnership with the U.S. government to resettle refugees – citing the Trump administration's resettling of Afrikaners from South Africa, who are white, as a last straw.  

President Donald Trump has classified Afrikaners as refugees. 

The Rev. Sean W. Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said he was informed last month that the church was expected to help resettle Afrikaners.

“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” Rowe wrote in a letter to members of the church.

The denomination said the Episcopal Migration Ministries will move toward winding down federally funded services by the end of the federal fiscal year, in September. 

Rowe, in the letter, also said that in January the previous U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in which the church participated had essentially shut down. He said essentially no new refugees have since arrived and that hundreds of staff in resettlement agencies across the country have been laid off.

In addition, he said, funding for resettling refugees who have already arrived has been uncertain. Then about two weeks ago, he said, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of its federal grant, it was expected to resettle Afrikaners.

"I want to be very clear about why we made this decision," Rowe also said in the letter. "It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years."