News & Announcements
First Church Amherst Offers Sanctuary
Responding to modern-day immigration policy with a thousands-year-old faith tradition, First Church Amherst an is providing sanctuary to a Guatemalan man facing deportation.
Lucio Perez, who came to this country almost 20 years ago and has three children who are U.S. citizens, entered the First Congregational Church in Amherst Wednesday evening, shortly after his Stay of Removal was denied by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Perez is waiting for his case to be adjudicated by the Board of Immigration Appeals, and sought sanctuary in an effort to keep his family together as he waits for a decision.
Perez is welcome to live in the church building until his case is settled. Church members have transformed a meeting room into a bedroom for Perez, with a sitting area, microwave, and small refrigerator.
“Our scriptures tell us to love our neighbors and love and care for the foreigners and marginalized persons in our midst, just as God does,” said the Rev. Vicki Kemper, pastor of the United Church of Christ congregation. “Lucio is our neighbor and our brother, and he and his family deserve justice and peace. We welcome him into our church with open hearts and fervent prayers.”
While First Church Amherst now becomes the first faith community in Western Massachusetts to offer sanctuary to an undocumented immigrant, this was not anyone’s preferred outcome, Perez’s supporters said.
The Pioneer Valley Workers Center (PVWC) and other groups and faith leaders have been working for months for a resolution to Perez’s case that would allow him to stay with his family.
In September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ordered Perez to leave the country by October 19 and fitted him with an electronic ankle-bracelet to monitor his location. The 35-year-old landscaper and Springfield resident has no criminal record, but he came to the attention of immigration authorities in 2009 after West Hartford police alleged that he had abandoned his children when he went inside a Dunkin Donuts.
Deportation proceedings against Perez were put on hold under President Obama’s immigration policies as long as he checked in annually with immigration officials. But policies have changed under the Trump administration, and in July Perez was denied another stay of his deportation.
Perez’s lawyers have filed a Motion to Reopen his original case for cancellation of removal. His emergency Motion to Stay was denied on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Facing separation from his wife and children, Perez chose to seek sanctuary while awaiting next steps in his case.
“I am so thankful to First Congregational Church of Amherst for opening the doors to me,” said Perez. “I am grateful for the support of the community and my family. Together we are strong.”
A network of faith communities and activist organizations will assist the church in providing hospitality to Perez.
First Church in Full Swing
The new program year gets off to a wonderful start Friday evening, September 1, with the church’s annual potluck supper and conversation with incoming Amherst College students. Supper begins at 6. All are welcome in the Dining Room!
Sunday School begins Sunday, September 3. Children will also be a central focus of our worship service, as we do a Blessing of the Backpacks (and the children who carry them).
The annual Youth & Family Campout gets underway at 6 p.m. on Friday, September 8 at the home of Pastor Vicki. Extra tents are available!
On Sunday, September 10, we’ll get a wonderful report from the C2C4 Charlie bicycle riders, and on Sunday, September 17, worship will feature moving testimony from the participants in this summer’s Appalachia Service Project trip to Kentucky and West Virginia.
In addition to all these special events, all the usual wonderful parts of our life together are starting up again. The First Church choir season gets underway with rehearsal on September 7 and a worship anthem on September 10.
And our Widening the Welcome construction project continues, with each week getting us closer to having a fully accessible building. We’re already a fully accessible community where all people are welcomed and loved just as they are. We would love to see you in worship or at one or more of these special events!
First Church Becomes Immigrant-Welcoming Congregation
At a congregational meeting on Pentecost Sunday, June 4, the congregation chose enthusiastically and unanimously to become an immigrant-welcoming congregation.
We adopted this covenant: “We are an immigrant-welcoming congregation. We practice hospitality to immigrants from all nations. We commit to supporting interfaith efforts protecting all people, acting with justice and compassion, and seeking to end practices that divide families and weaken our communities.”
We rejoice in the congregation’s commitment to support our immigrant neighbors and to oppose efforts to divide families through deportation.
Unfortunately, our immigrant-welcoming banner, which had hung outside the front of the church for four months, was ripped down and stolen the night before this action. We are undeterred. By God’s grace, we will persist.
We’re Widening Our Welcome!
Five months or so from now we will have a lift to help folks move between the first and second floors, an additional bathroom on the main (second) floor, and many other improvements. Until then, we’re in a bit of a mess. But it’s all good!
Beginning, May 28, there will be no way of moving between the first and the second floors, and the second-floor bathroom will be out of commission. So . . . to access the lower level, please enter through the Dining Room or the Churchill Street door. To access the sanctuary level, enter through the front doors on Main Street.
Lower-floor bathrooms will be usable throughout the project. Until the upper-floor bathrooms are complete, a port-potty will be available in the bell tower.
Thank God for these exciting developments!
ONA 30th Anniversary
We hope to see you on Sunday, May 14, as First Church celebrates 30 years of being an Open and Affirming congregation. (ONA is UCC lingo for being welcoming and inclusive of ALL people, especially as that concerns a range of sexual orientations and gender identities.)
We were the 8th UCC congregation to become ONA, but we are dedicated to continuing to learn what it means to fully live out that commitment.
Come for the celebration at 10:30 on May 14. You’ll be glad you did!
Easter at First Church Amherst
Alleluias will ring and the First Church Choir will sing.
The sanctuary will be filled with balloons and Easter flowers. The music will be grand, and the children will bless us with the purity of their joy.
The Risen Christ will be present in the bread and wine of communion.
And all of us–and that includes YOU–will praise the Source of life and love, celebrate resurrection, and remember that Love always has the last word.
The celebration begins at 10:30. Hope to see you there!
Holy Week services
Journey to the cross with Jesus at the following services:
On Maundy Thursday, April 13, there are several opportunities to remember the night when Jesus gave his disciples (and us) a new commandment: to love one another.
A Service of Foot-washing begins at 5:15 in the Chapel.
At 6, a simple supper of soup and bread is served in the Dining Room. (You don’t need to bring a thing!)
Then at 7 o’clock, the Service of Tenebrae begins in the Chapel.
On Good Friday, April 14, First Church Amherst hosts the community ecumenical Good Friday service. It begins at noon in the Sanctuary.
Hope to see you at one of these events and then again on Easter Sunday, when the resurrection celebration begins at 10:30..
Palm/Passion Sunday
Holy Week begins with a heartbreaking mash-up of pomp and pathos. Our Palm/Passion Sunday will feature eco-friendly palm leaves and two anthems by the First Church Choir. The Lenten theme of the day is “Be True.” Hope to see you at 10:30 on April 9.
