East Tennessee bishop joins Southern faith leaders in supporting immigrants facing deportation
[Episcopal News Service] East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole and ecumenical faith leaders from across the South gathered Sept. 30 for an event in Knoxville to express their support for immigrant families living in fear of the Trump administration’s push for mass deportations.
The event was part of a regional gathering, “Deepening Our Moral Witness,” hosted by the Roman Catholic dioceses of Knoxville and Lexington and convened by the Catholic Immigrant Prophetic Action Project. Faith leaders from Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and West Virginia participated on the steps of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“Increasingly, fear and chaos and brutality appear to be the point in immigration policy,” Cole said, according to a news release. “God has made us all, and we all belong to each other.”