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EPISCOPAL CHURCH REFUSES TO RESETTLE WHITE AFRIKANERS, CITING MORAL
OPPOSITION  
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Jack Jenkins
May 12, 2025
NPR
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_ 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. _

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.

In a letter sent to members
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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
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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."

Rowe stressed that while Episcopal Migration Ministries will seek to
"wind down all federally funded services by the end of the federal
fiscal year in September," the denomination will continue to support
immigrants and refugees in other ways, such as offering aid to
refugees who have already been resettled.

The announcement came just as flights with Afrikaners were scheduled
to arrive at Washington Dulles International Airport, outside
Washington, D.C. — the first batch of entries after Trump declared
via a February executive order
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that the U.S. would take in "Afrikaners in South Africa who are
victims of unjust racial discrimination." The South African government
has stridently denied allegations
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of systemic racial animus, as has a coalition of white religious
leaders in the region
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that includes many Anglicans
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"The stated reasons for [Trump's actions] are claims of victimisation,
violence and hateful rhetoric against white people in South Africa
along with legislation providing for the expropriation of land without
compensation," read the letter from white South African religious
leaders, which included among its four authors an Anglican priest. "As
white South Africans in active leadership within the Christian
community, representing diverse political and theological
perspectives, we unanimously reject these claims."

In addition to ties with Tutu, the Episcopal Church has a long history
of advocating against apartheid in South Africa. It first began
altering its financial holdings in the region in 1966
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and by the mid-1980s
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the church voted to divest
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from companies doing business in South Africa.

Rowe noted his announcement comes as the Trump administration has
otherwise all but frozen the refugee program, with Afrikaners among
the few — and possibly only — people granted entry as refugees
since January. Shortly after he was sworn in, Trump signed an
executive order
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that essentially halted the refugee program and stopped payments to
organizations that assist with refugee resettlement — including,
according to one group, payments for work already performed
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That change has left refugees — including Christians fleeing
religious persecution
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— without a clear path forward and has forced the 10 refugee
resettlement groups, seven of which are faith based, to lay off scores
of workers while still trying to support refugees who had recently
arrived. Four of the faith groups have since filed two separate
lawsuits
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one of which recently resulted in a ruling that should have restarted
the program. However, refugee groups have accused the government of
"delaying compliance" with the court order.

A representative for Church World Service, which is among the groups
currently suing the administration, said the organization "has agreed
to support one family through remote services," but pointed to an
additional statement from last week that voiced ongoing frustration
with the government's actions.

"We are concerned that the U.S. Government has chosen to fast-track
the admission of Afrikaners, while actively fighting court orders to
provide life-saving resettlement to other refugee populations who are
in desperate need of resettlement," Rick Santos, head of Church World
Service, said in a statement last week.

"By resettling this population, the Government is demonstrating that
it still has the capacity to quickly screen, process, and depart
refugees to the United States. It's time for the Administration to
honor our nation's commitment to the thousands of refugee families it
abandoned with its cruel and illegal executive order."

Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World
Relief, an evangelical Christian group that helps resettle refugees,
said in an email that his group anticipates "serving a small number"
of the arrivals who qualify for Office of Refugee Resettlement-funded
services. But he said the situation is "complicated by the reality
that the government is not bringing them to the US through the
traditional State Department initial resettlement process, where World
Relief has historically been one of the ten private agencies that
implement this public-private partnership, because that process
remains suspended."

He added: "Our primary response to this situation is to continue to
urge the administration to resume that initial resettlement process
for a broad range of individuals who have fled persecution on account
of their faith, political opinion, race or other reasons outlined
under US law — and to highlight the support for doing so from the
evangelical Christians who are World Relief's core base of support,
including some very conservative evangelicals who see refugee
resettlement as a vital tool to protect those denied religious freedom
abroad."

_This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR
and __Religion News Service_
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* Refugee Resettlement; Afrikaners; Episcopal Church;
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