Showing posts with label Afrikaners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Afrikaners. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Episcopal Church refuses to resettle white Afrikaners, citing moral opposition

May 12, 20252:45 PM ET

By
Jack Jenkins



White South Africans demonstrate in support of President Trump in front of the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, on Feb. 15.Jerome Delay/AP

In a striking move that ends a nearly four-decades-old relationship between the federal government and the Episcopal Church, the denomination announced on Monday that it is terminating its partnership with the government to resettle refugees, citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa who have been classified as refugees by President Trump's administration.



Africa
White South African Afrikaner refugees arrive in U.S. on a government-chartered plane

In a letter sent to members of the church, the Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe — the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church — said that two weeks ago, the government "informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees."

The request, Rowe said, crossed a moral line for the Episcopal Church, which is part of the global Anglican Communion, which boasts among its leaders the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a celebrated and vocal opponent of apartheid in South Africa.

"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. "Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government."