Key points:
- United Methodists across the U.S. joined in prayer vigils and protests in the days since federal immigration enforcement agents killed a woman in Minneapolis and shot two people in Portland, Oregon.
- Minneapolis joins cities across the U.S. that have seen an onslaught of masked, federal agents wearing military-style gear.
- Some pastors used Sunday worship to comfort the grieving and counsel love in response to violence and hostility.
Just one block from where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot Renee Good, Park Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis opened its doors Sunday to give worshippers space to grieve and restore their faith in the face of violence.
Bishop Lanette Plambeck helped with the service, reminding the large, multiethnic congregation that God is near the brokenhearted. The bishop, who leads the Dakotas and Minnesota conferences, also suggested that worshippers’ own experiences might help guide their response to the presence of ICE officers.
“We all know here in the Upper Midwest that the way you care for ice is that you throw a little salt on it. So, I invite you to go into the world and be salt and light,” she said, referencing Christ’s Sermon on the Mount to applause. “I invite you to love and be a good neighbor.”
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In recent days, United Methodists have joined with thousands in prayer vigils and peaceful protests across the U.S. after two incidents that saw federal agents open fire on people in Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon. In Minneapolis and beyond, people braved ice and snow to stand up for their immigrant neighbors and speak out against what they see as a government increasingly hostile to large parts of the U.S. population.
On Jan. 9, Park Avenue held a vigil in direct response to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s “Day of Unity" — inviting people to honor Good, a mother of three, and observe a moment of silence. The service was outside on the side of the church building, where a mural of George Floyd displays the message “Breathe Love. Breathe for those who can’t.”
The Rev. Jennifer Ikoma-Motzko, the church’s pastor of spiritual care and formation, spoke at both the vigil and the subsequent Sunday service about her family’s experience when the federal government suspends basic rights. Ikoma-Motzko is a fourth-generation Japanese American whose maternal grandmother was among those incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II.
“It astounds me and it grieves me in carrying her legacy year after year consistently to see that same sort of fear and violence happening here in our communities,” the pastor said during the vigil.
The choice before church members today, she said during Sunday worship, is whether they will be neighbors in name only or neighbors in presence.
Minneapolis and nearby St. Paul are the latest U.S. cities to see an influx of heavily armed and masked federal officials targeting suspected undocumented immigrants. With more than 2,000 agents already dispatched, the Department of Homeland Security is calling the Twin Cities operation its largest ever. On Jan. 12, the state of Minnesota as well as the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul filed a lawsuit against the federal government to stop the immigration enforcement surge.
At the same time, United Methodists in Minnesota are following the well-worn path already trod by fellow church members in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, Charlotte, North Carolina, and for months now, in Portland, Oregon.
In the face of militarization and brutality, United Methodist leaders are clear: Christ calls disciples to a better way. Those who want to follow Christ are to reject violence, welcome the immigrant and work toward a just and loving world.
Part of that work requires bearing public witness, said the Rev. Heather Riggs, pastor of Montavilla United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon. Riggs, who also has been accompanying immigrants as they head to court to meet their legal requirements, led a prayer vigil Jan. 9 in her city.
“The importance of gathering — and gathering peacefully — is because they want us to do nothing so they can get away with it, or they want us to be violent to justify their violence,” she said. “So, we have to show up with that third way … because it is the dream of ‘God’s Kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven' that we are working for.’ We are working for God’s reign, and we don’t achieve that by means of violence.”
The Rev. Nate Melcher, pastor of Richfield United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, said all things must begin with prayer. His church is near Annunciation Catholic Church and School, where two children were killed and 21 others were wounded during a shooting at the church on Aug. 27.
“We must remember God’s love is stronger than our fears,” he said. “Some twist horrible tragedies in our neighborhood to serve their selfish agendas. But God urges us to seek courage and wisdom.”
When the church’s neighbors at Annunciation suffered their tragic shooting, the church reached out to follow their lead on how to help.
The current situation is different, he added. ICE, the agency founded in 2003, has now received an unprecedented influx of money under the “Big Beautiful Bill” — making it by far the highest-funded federal law-enforcement agency.
“The overabundant presence of ICE in the neighborhood,” he said is ongoing and has already affected the church’s work with refugees and other vulnerable people. He and other pastors report ICE activity near churches, driving people away from what should be a place of refuge.
The hostility was palpable on Jan. 7 when masked agents in military gear came through the residential neighborhood near Park Avenue United Methodist to seize suspected undocumented immigrants. That’s where — amid locals blowing whistles to warn of ICE’s presence — a federal officer gunned down Renee Good as she tried to drive her maroon Honda Pilot away from the area.
Multiple videos from eye-witnesses contradict the Trump administration’s claims that Good was a “domestic terrorist” who ran over the ICE officer. Video recorded on the ICE agent’s cell phone showed a calm Good, in her last moments, telling him, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”
A day after Good’s shooting, Homeland Security announced that a Customs and Border Patrol agent had shot and wounded a Venezuelan man and woman outside a health clinic in Portland, Oregon. This time, no public videos showed what transpired.
The two were later identified as Luis David Nino-Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, who are now in stable condition. Nino-Moncada now faces charges of ramming his truck into the border-patrol vehicle, and Portland police are investigating the two for ties to the Tren de Aragua gang.
Both incidents follow other times immigration enforcement officials have fired on civilians. The Wall Street Journal identified 13 instances of agents shooting at or into civilian vehicles since July, leaving at least eight people shot with two confirmed dead Previously, ICE agents shot and killed Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in in a Chicago traffic stop on Sept. 12. He had just dropped off his kids at school and daycare. More recently, an off-duty ICE agent in Los Angeles fatally shot Keith Porter Jr. on New Year’s Eve.
In both Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest, people expressed gratitude for how their communities have responded to ICE’s actions by coming together to support, check in and pray for one another and even deliver groceries to people under threat in their homes.
The Rev. Jeremy Smith, the pastor of Edmonds United Methodist Church near Seattle, spoke of how lay people in the church organized a vigil Sunday evening that drew some 200 people.
“Something that’s really concerned me is that in the past couple years, there’s been this assault on empathy, you know, like Christians writing against empathy, or saying it’s not a Christian value or it’s ‘woke,’” he said. “And I think we’re seeing the result of that.”
But Good in her empathy for her neighbors and others' empathy in response to her death are telling a different story, he said.
New City Church, a multiethnic United Methodist congregation in Minneapolis, exemplified that different story. The church stands near where Floyd was murdered in 2020 and less than a mile from where Good was shot to death. In the immediate aftermath of Good’s death, the church opened its doors as a safe place for protesters to come to warm up and mourn.
During Sunday service, the church opened its doors again, and the Rev. Tyler Sit, the church’s pastor, needed to ask worshippers to squeeze in to allow more room for people to have a seat. He also invited people to write their prayers and notes to be placed at Good’s memorial a few blocks away.
In a week that also saw members of the Trump administration argue that “might makes right,” Sit said, God offers a different way of looking at the world.
“God flips the structure of power,” Sit preached. “And we as Christians … are people who live for the flip. We don’t give out food because the hungry are lowly. We give food because hungry people are children of God who will become scientists and preachers and doctors who will change the world. We don’t build affordable housing because people surviving homelessness are a problem. We build affordable housing because the homeless deserve it.”
Plambeck at the conclusion of worship invited those gathered “to share with the world what greatness really looks like.”
“Greatness is guided by the Great Commandment to love our God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength,” she said, “and to love our neighbor as an extension of ourselves.”
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
