CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire Episcopal bishop is attracting national attention after warning his clergy to finalize their wills and get their affairs in order to prepare for a \u201cnew era of martyrdom.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bishop Rob Hirschfeld of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire made his comments earlier this month at a vigil honoring Renee Good, who was fatally shot<\/a> on Jan. 7 behind the wheel of her vehicle by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. <\/p>\n The Trump administration has defended the ICE officer\u2019s actions, saying he fired in self-defense<\/a> while standing in front of Good\u2019s vehicle as it began to move forward<\/a>. That explanation has been panned by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz<\/a> and others based on videos<\/a> of the confrontation.<\/p>\n Hirschfeld’s speech cited several historical clergy members who had risked their lives to protect others, including mentioning New Hampshire seminary student Jonathan Daniels, who was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy in Alabama while shielding a young Black civil rights activist in 1965.<\/p>\n \u201cI have told the clergy of the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire that we may be entering into that same witness,\u201d Hirschfeld said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve asked them to get their affairs in order, to make sure they have their wills written, because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies, to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n Hirschfeld did not call for violence, but instead said people of Christian faith should not fear death.<\/p>\n \u201cThose of us who are ready to build a new world, we also have to be prepared,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we truly want to live without fear, we cannot fear even death itself, my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Other religious leaders have also called on Christians to protect the vulnerable amid the uptick in immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, including Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.<\/p>\n \u201cWe keep resisting, advocating, bearing witness and repairing the breach,\u201d Rowe said during a prayer earlier this week. \u201cWe keep sheltering and caring for those among us who are immigrants and refugees because they are beloved by God, and without them, we cannot fully be the church.\u201d<\/p>\n In Minnesota, Rt. Rev. Craig Loya urged people not to meet \u201chatred with hatred\u201d but instead focus on love in \u201ca world obviously not fine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to make like our ancient ancestors, and turn the world upside down by mobilizing for love,” he said. \u201cWe are going to disrupt with Jesus\u2019 hope. We are going agitate with Jesus\u2019 love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire Episcopal bishop is attracting national attention after warning his clergy to finalize…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":526004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[233600,233599,347,8571,57,409,50,365,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-526003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-233600","10":"tag-anglicanism","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-christianity","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-immigration","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-religion","17":"tag-u-s-news","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}